Delaware Bill to Move the Primary from September to April Advances

Posted on by January 23, 2019
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On January 23, the Delaware House Administration Committee passed HB 41 by a vote of 4-0. It moves the primary from September to the Fourth Tuesday in April.

The bill would have the indirect effect of moving the deadline for a new party to get on the ballot, from August, to early April. Delaware is in the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit ruled in Council of Alternate Political Parties v Hooks, 121 F.3d 876 (1997) that New Jersey’s petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, could not be as early as April.

HB 41 has 18 co-sponsors.

Arkansas Ballot Access Bill Advances

Posted on by January 23, 2019
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On January 23, the Arkansas House State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee passed HB 1152. It moves the petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates from March 1 to May 1. However, independent candidates still would need to file a declaration of candidacy by March 1.

The bill’s author is Representative Justin Boyd (R-Fort Smith). The motivation for the bill is that the March 1 deadline was declared unconstitutional in December 2017. However, the state has been appealing this decision in the Eighth Circuit. The appeal is still pending.

Fourteen Candidates May be on Ballot for Mayor of Chicago Next Month

Posted on by January 23, 2019
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Chicago holds a non-partisan election for Mayor, City Clerk, Treasurer, and Alderman, on February 26. Here is the candidate list from the Chicago Board of Elections. There will apparently be between twelve and fourteen candidates on the ballot for Mayor. Candidates for a citywide office need 12,500 signatures and are subject to having their petitions challenged. Some challenges are still not adjudicated.

Maryland Won’t Remove Libertarians from Registration Form Until Lawsuit Over Definition of “Political Party” Gets a Ruling

Posted on by January 23, 2019
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On January 23, a hearing was held in U.S. District Court in Maryland, in Johnston v Lamone, the lawsuit over the Maryland definition of “political party”. At the hearing, the state agreed to leave the Libertarian Party as a choice on the voter registration forms until the lawsuit gets a ruling, which will be quite soon. There will be oral argument on Thursday, January 31, at 2:30 p.m. The issue is whether it the state’s definition of a qualified party is constitutional, as applied to a party like the Libertarian Party, which has over 10,000 registered voters yet which is not a qualified party.

The party argues that it is not rational to force it to obtain 10,000 signatures on a petition to restore its party status, when it has 22,464 registered members. It seems that if the party has that many registered voters, there are more than 10,000 voters in the state who want it on the ballot, so the petition would be meaningless. The case is before U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake, a Clinton appointee. There really are no cases on point.

The Green Party has 9,285 registered members. It is not on the ballot either, but if the Libertarians prevail in court, and the Green Party increases its registration to at least 10,000, that would help the Green Party also.

Alaska Ballot Access Bill

Posted on by January 23, 2019
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Alaska Representative Ivy Spohnholz has agreed to introduce a bill to ease the definition of “political party.” Currently it is a group that has registration membership equal to 3% of the last vote cast, or a group that polled 3% of the vote for the top non-presidential office at the last election.

As a registration requirement, Alaska has the nation’s most severe registration test, unless one counts the Pennsylvania law that puts a party on the ballot if it has 15% of the statewide registration.

The only qualified parties in Alaska now are the Republican, Democratic, and Alaskan Independence Party. The Alaskan Independence Party had no nominees for any office in 2018, yet it easily remains on the ballot because it has such high registration.