North Carolina Ballot Printing Delayed Until September 1 at Earliest

Posted on by August 20, 2018
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Some states prefer to print their November ballots in August, even though other states have their primaries in September and thus obviously don’t print theirs until mid-September or even late September. North Carolina is one of the states that prefers to print its November ballots in August.

However, a state court fight over whether to remove two statewide ballot measures has delayed ballot printing until September 1, at the earliest. See this story. As a result, there will also be more time to settle two other election lawsuits. One is the state court case over whether two judicial candidates should have their party labels on the ballot. The other is the federal court case over whether the three Constitution Party nominees who had run earlier in the year in major party primaries, and who had lost their primaries, can be on the November ballot as Constitution Party nominees.

In the case over party labels, the lower court had put the labels on the ballot, but state legislative leaders have filed a notice of appeal, but they haven’t taken any other action to advance their appeal yet.

In the Constitution Party case, the plaintiffs recently filed this brief.

South Dakota Republican Party Chair Sues Secretary of State to Prevent Her From Certifying Any Constitution Party Candidates

Posted on by August 20, 2018
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On August 16, a hearing was held in a South Dakota circuit court in Lederman v Krebs, civ 18-147. Lederman is the Republican Party state chair. He had sued the Secretary of State to prevent her from certifying the names of any Constitution Party candidates on the November ballot. Two factions of the Constitution Party, with different state chairs, had each held a nominating convention and chosen different nominees for public office. The basis for the lawsuit was that a party could only have one set of nominees. The judge ordered the Secretary of State not to have any nominees.

Neither faction of the party had any attorneys in court, so it was not possible for anyone associated with the Constitution Party to call witnesses and introduce any evidence about who the rightful state officers are.

Delaware Independent Files Third Circuit Brief in Case Over Law that Requires Judges to be Democrats or Republicans

Posted on by August 19, 2018
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On August 15, James R. Adams filed his brief in the Third Circuit in Adams v Carney, 18-1045. This is the lawsuit over the Delaware requirement that all state court judges must be members of a major party. In Delaware, a “major party” is defined as a party that has registration of at least 5% of the state total. Adams is an independent. He won his lawsuit in U.S. District Court, and the state is appealing. Delaware does not have elections for judicial office. Judges are appointed.

New Florida Voter Registration Data

Posted on by August 18, 2018
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On August 10, the Florida Secretary of State released a new voter registration tally. That office rarely releases new tallies. It doesn’t release any during odd years, and in even years only releases tallies just before an election. The new tally was released for the August 2018 primary.

Percentages are: Democratic 37.19%; Republican 35.30%; independent and miscellaneous 26.84%; Independent Party .34%; Libertarian .24%; Green .05%; Constitution .01%; Reform .01%; Ecology .004%; Party for Socialism and Liberation .003%.

In February 2018, the percentages were: Democratic 37.27%; Republican 34.86%; independent and miscellaneous 27.34%; Libertarian .24%; Independent Party .19%; Green .06%; Constitution .01%; Reform .01%; America’s Independent Party .01%; Ecology .003%; Party for Socialism and Liberation .003%.

The number of registered voters in the new tally is lower than the February 2018 tally. The February 2018 tally was never published on the Secretary of State’s web page, but was determined by ordering a list of all the registered voters and running a program to tally each party. Ken Moellman helped with that.

It is somewhat surprising that the number of registered independents declined, as a percentage. It declined by 250,000 voters since February 2018.

America’s Independent Party lost its qualified status sometime earlier in 2018. It had run Tom Hoefling for President in 2016 and 2012, and Alan Keyes in 2008.