Utah State Government Asks U.S. Supreme Court Not to Hear Republican Party Case Over How Parties Nominate

Posted on by January 29, 2019
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Attorneys for Utah state government have filed this brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Utah Republican Party v Cox, 18-450. The state government asks the Court to refuse to hear the case. The issue is whether the Constitution protects a party’s right to decide how to nominate.

The state’s brief reads as though the Republican Party doesn’t want to nominate by primary. Actually the party does want to nominate by primary. But it wants to keep candidates off its primary ballot unless they have substantial support at a pre-primary endorsements meeting. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Nevada Bill to Injure Ballot Access

Posted on by January 29, 2019
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A bill in Nevada has been introduced that would move the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties from June to May, and move the petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates from June to March. It is AB 82, requested by the Nevada Association of Counties and sponsored by the Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections.

In 1992, a U.S. District Court enjoined the June petition deadlines that were in effect that year, in Fulani v Lau, cv-N-92-535. The legislature then moved them to July, but some years later, moved them back to June.

Nevada also lost a deadline case in 1986, Libertarian Party of Nevada v Swackhamer, 638 F Supp 565, although the deadline struck down in that case was in April. Thanks to Jeanine Hansen for the news about AB 82.

New Jersey State Senator Switches from Republican to Democratic

Posted on by January 28, 2019
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New Jersey State Senator Dawn Addiego has changed her registration from Republican to Democratic. She represents part of Burlington County. She has been in the State Senate since 2010, and was last re-elected in 2017. She is not up until 2021. She is the third state legislator this month to make this switch. The others were in Maine and California. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.