Lawsuit Filed to Remove “Three-California” Initiative from the Ballot

Posted on by July 12, 2018
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On July 9, a California environmental group, the Planning and Conservation League, asked the California Supreme Court to remove Proposition 9 from the ballot. This is the initiative to split California into three states. The court is free to either hear the case or decide not to hear it. The lawsuit argues that a mere statutory initiative can’t split the state; that at a minimum, the initiative should at least have been a proposed constitutional amendment, not just a statute. Proposed initiatives to amend the California Constitution require signatures of 8% of the last gubernatorial vote, whereas statutory initiatives need 5% of the last gubernatorial vote.

The case is Planning & Conservation League v Padilla, S249859. On July 12, the California Supreme Court asked the proponent of the initiative to respond to the lawsuit.

North Dakota Libertarian Candidate Files Lawsuit to Force a Recount of the Primary Vote

Posted on by July 10, 2018
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On June 9, Roland Riemers, Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State of North Dakota in the June 12 primary, asked the State Supreme Court to order the Secretary of State to recount the primary vote for Secretary of State. Riemers v Jaeger. The North Dakota law says that no one can be considered nominated in a partisan primary (even if he or she got the most votes) if the candidate doesn’t poll at least 300 votes. The state says Riemers only got 247 votes.

The recount law, 16.1-16-01, says, “A recount must be conducted when: (a) any individual failed to be nominated in a primary election by one percent or less of the highest vote cast for a candidate for the office sought.” North Dakota primaries are open. The single piece of paper lists candidates of all the qualified parties, although there are columns for each party, and the instructions warn voters to only cast votes in one party’s primary. The Republican whose name was printed on the ballot for Secretary of State got 54,563 votes. Riemers argues that 1% of 54,563 is 546, and since he only missed qualifying by 53 votes, 53 is less than 546, and therefore he is entitled to a recount. The state thinks that the 1% tabulation should only apply to the vote cast inside the Libertarian primary, but Riemers says the statute does not mention the party vote. He also points to the fact that the tabulating machines disqualified about 2,000 votes for Secretary of State, with no explanation as to why.

The State Supreme Court is free to either hear this case, or reject it.

Hal Patton, Mayor of Edwardsville, Illinois, Will Appear on November Ballot for State Senate as the Nominee of His “Downstate United” Party

Posted on by July 10, 2018
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Hal Patton, Mayor of Edwardsville, Illinois, will appear on the November ballot as the nominee for State Senate, 56th district, of the Downstate United Party. He needed 5,201 signatures and he submitted 9,000. No one challenged his petition.

He is really a Republican, and he tried to be the Republican nominee for State Senate earlier this year. But his petition to get on the Republican primary ballot was ruled invalid because he had signed a petition to help a Democratic candidate get on the Democratic primary ballot for State Rep. Patton is a dentist and he signed for the Democratic candidate because she was one of his patients. But the courts upheld his removal from the Republican primary ballot on the theory that when he signed her petition, he accidentally affiliated himself with the Democratic Party, so he couldn’t be a Republican candidate.

The person who had challenged his Republican primary petition, Rachelle Crowe, is the Democratic nominee for State Senate in the 56th district. When the 56th district was last up for election, in 2016, there was only one candidate on the ballot, a Democrat.

It is extremely likely that Patton will get more than 5% of the vote in November, and that will cause the Downstate United Party to become a ballot-qualified party for the 56th district in future elections.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Chosen for U.S. Supreme Court, has Sparse but Bad Record on Voting Rights

Posted on by July 10, 2018
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Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s choice for the U.S. Supreme Court, has had few voting rights cases. In Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections, he voted to uphold the action of D.C. election officials who refused to count write-in votes for Bob Barr, 2008 Libertarian nominee, even though Barr was a declared write-in candidate. The decision, signed by Kavanaugh, said it was good enough that D.C. counted the total number of all write-ins cast for President, without specifying how many were received by any particular candidate. Barr was the only declared write-in presidential candidate in D.C. that year.

Judge Kavanaugh has also generally upheld campaign finance restrictions. Here is a summary of his involvement in those cases, by the Institute for Free Speech.