This story in the Keene Sentinel describes some of the election administration problems in New Hampshire on September 11, for the Libertarian primary. The state had not been required to administer a primary for any party other than the two major parties since 1996.
Last month, the Bread and Roses Party filed a petition to be a qualified party in Maryland. It submitted approximately 15,000 signatures, but was told that it only has 9,773 valid signatures. The requirement is 10,000 signatures.
On September 5, the party’s founders filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that it is unconstitutional to invalidate signatures just because the signer failed to include his or her middle initial. Without the law requiring the signature on the petition to exactly match the name on the voter registration form, the party would have had enough valid signatures. Segal v Maryland State Board of Elections, 1:18cv-2731.
The lawsuit also challenges the “sore loser” law, because the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate, Jerome Segal, had run in this year’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. The case is assigned to Judge George Hazel, an Obama appointee. The case is pro se. Here is the Complaint.
The State Board of Elections will permit the Bread and Roses Party to continue gathering signatures, and if it gets another 227 valid signatures, the entire petition will be approved and can be used to put the party on the ballot for the 2020 election.
Pennsylvania currently has closed primaries. On September 13, State Senator Joe Scarnati, the leader of the Republican Party in the Pennsylvania Senate, introduced SB 1234. It would permit independent voters to choose any primary ballot they wish. Here is the text. The bill has nine co-sponsors. It is being introduced very late in the legislative session.
This year, the only candidates who will be listed on the New York ballot for U.S. Senate are incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, and Republican nominee Chele Chiavacci. This is the first time since 1956 that a New York U.S. Senate election has had only two names on the ballot.
The Green Party is ballot-qualified, and would have run someone, but because the primary for congress was in June, the party’s normal processes for recruiting candidates was too late. The Libertarian Party is not ballot-qualified, but it did petition this year for a statewide slate. But it left U.S. Senate off its statewide petition because the petitioning period for U.S. Senate was a different time period than the petitioning period for state office, so in effect the party would have needed two separate statewide petitions.
The other ballot-qualified parties in New York all nominated either Gillibrand or Chiavacci. Gillibrand is the nominee of the Working Families, Independence, and Women’s Equality Party. Chiavacci is the nominee of the Conservative and Reform Parties.
Massachusetts held primaries on September 4. The race in the Democratic primary for U.S. House, 3rd district, will be settled with a recount, because the vote totals for Lori Trahan and Daniel Koh is so close. See this story.
