U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Pregnancy Center Compelled Speech has Consequences for Ballot Speech

Posted on by June 26, 2018
3

On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v Becerra, 16-1140. The 5-4 majority said that a California law requiring anti-abortion health centers to tell their clients how they can obtain an abortion probably violates the First Amendment.

The two-page concurrence by Justice Anthony Kennedy, co-signed by Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, says, “This law is a paradigmatic example of the serious threat presented when government seeks to impose its own message in the place of individual speech, thought, and expression.” Also the majority opinion itself, by Justice Clarence Thomas, says on page 12, “As with other kinds of speech, regulating the content of professionals’ speech poses the inherent risk that the Government seeks not to advance a legitimate regulatory goal, but to suppress unpopular ideas or information.”

Both quotes are relevant to the pending lawsuit Soltysik v Padilla, now awaiting a decision from the Ninth Circuit. The issue in that case is a California election law that compels registered members of unqualified parties to have the ballot label, “Party preference: none”. The plaintiff is a registered Socialist and he wants the ballot to say that he prefers the Socialist Party. Other candidates who have been on California primary ballots in recent years are registered in the Socialist Workers Party, the Constitution Party, and the Socialist Equality Party. They also were forced to say they had no party preference.

Reform Party Primary for Two U.S. House Seats Will Cost $1,000,000 in Election Administration Costs

Posted on by June 26, 2018
12

According to this story in City and State New York, an on-line and print publication covering government in New York city, the Board of Elections is being required to spend $1,000,000 just because the ballot-qualified Reform Party has two primary contests on June 26. NOTE: the article originally said $25,000,000, but City and State amended the story to say $1,000,000. Thanks to Jim Riley for pointing this out.

New York election administration is already terribly wasteful, because the primary for state and local office is in September, but the primary for U.S. Senate and House is separate, and is on June 26. The major parties don’t have any primaries for the U.S. Senate election, nor in many U.S. House districts, so many parts of New York state won’t have an actual primary on June 26. But the Reform Party set up primaries for itself in two districts. No one is on the ballot for either primary, but because voters in those two districts submitted an “opportunity to ballot” petition, the election administrators must hold primaries and tally any write-in votes. There is no write-in filing procedure, so all write-ins must be tallied. Furthermore, the Reform Party is exercising its rights to invite all independent voters to vote in its primaries, so enough ballots must be printed to accomodate thousands of voters, even though probably only a tiny number of the independent voters in those districts will be interested in voting in the Reform Party no-candidate primaries.

The Reform Party says its motivation is to force the state legislature to pass some sensible election law changes, including giving small qualified parties the option to nominate by convention instead of primary. Thanks to Michael Drucker for the link.

Illinois Libertarian Party Files 47,000 Signatures for its Statewide Slate

Posted on by June 25, 2018
3

June 25 is the Illinois petition deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The Libertarian Party submitted approximately 47,000 signatures to meet the requirement for 25,000. As noted in an earlier blog post today, the Conservative Party also submitted a petition. Those are the only two parties that submitted a statewide petition.

North Carolina Legislature May Put a Constitutional Amendment on Ballot to Revert to a State Elections Board with Only Republican and Democratic Members

Posted on by June 25, 2018
2

This year the North Carolina State Board of Elections was altered, so that there are four Republicans, four Democrats, and one member who is neither. However, the legislature may pass a proposed constitutional amendment to return to an 8-member board, with only four Democrats and four Republicans. See this story. The proposal says all the members would be appointed by legislative leaders. The Governor would not have any appointment power.