California “Disobedient” Presidential Elector Won’t Appeal to Ninth Circuit

Posted on by May 21, 2018
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As already noted, on April 20, a U.S. District Court in California said the Democratic presidential elector from 2016 who had sued could not prevail because the case is moot. Koller v Brown, n.d., 5:16cv-7069. Even though the U.S. District Court was plainly mistaken, the elector, Vinz Koller, did not appeal, and it is not too late for him to appeal.

The U.S. District Court said election law constitutional cases are moot unless the plaintiff intends to run in a future election. This is contrary to what the U.S. Supreme Court said about mootness in constitutional election laws cases in Moore v Ogilvie in 1969. The plaintiffs in that case were unpledged presidential electors in Illinois who had sued to overturn the county distribution requirement for statewide independent petitions. They had no intent in running in 1972, but the U.S. Supreme Court still said the case was not moot. This was made clear in Richardson v Ramirez, in which the Court discussed Moore v Ogilvie and said that the Moore plaintiffs did not intend to run in a future election.

The “disobedient” presidential electors who had sued Colorado and Minnesota over their right to vote for any candidate in the electoral college are more determined that Mr. Koller, and are appealing to U.S. Courts of Appeals.

New York Reform Party Will Hold First Statewide Primary in Which New York Independent Voters May Vote

Posted on by May 23, 2018
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The ballot-qualified Reform Party of New York held its state convention on Sunday, May 20. For statewide office in New York, candidates who show some support at the state convention are automatically placed on the party’s primary ballot, with no need for a primary petition. The Reform Party delegates gave enough support to each of four candidates for Attorney General that there will be a 4-way Reform Party primary for that office, if none of the four candidates withdraw.

The Reform Party is exercising its right to invite independent voters to vote in the party’s primaries, so the 2018 Reform Party primary will be the first in New York state history to include any independents who wish to vote in that primary. The Independence Party, which is also ballot-qualified, also lets independents vote in its primaries, but it hasn’t had any statewide office primaries since it adopted that policy.

The Reform Party primary candidates for Attorney General include Preet Bharara, who has not said that he wants to run for Attorney General. He is well-known because President Trump fired him last year from his position as U.S. Attorney for New York. If he doesn’t wish to run, he will withdraw. The other Attorney General candidates are Nancy Regula (a member of the Reform Party), Democratic candidate Michael Diederich, and Libertarian Chris Garvey.

For Governor, the Reform Party convention backed Marc Molinaro, who will probably be the Republican and Conservative nominee also. For Comptroller the Reform Party backs incumbent Democrat Thomas DiNapoli.

The Reform Party only has 1,882 registered voters, but election officials will be forced to print a very large number of Reform primary ballots because no one can predict how many independent voters will want to choose a Reform Party primary. The primary for state office is September 13.

Don Blankenship Says West Virginia Constitution Party Has Nominated Him for U.S. Senate

Posted on by May 21, 2018
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This article says Don Blankenship has announced that he has obtained the U.S. Senate nomination of the Constitution Party of West Virginia.

The Constitution Party is not ballot-qualified in West Virginia, but the petition requirement for U.S. Senate for the nominees of unqualified parties is 4,537, due August 1, not terribly difficult. The number is 1% of the number of votes cast for U.S. Senate in West Virginia in 2014 (there was no U.S. Senate election in West Virginia in 2016). It is somewhat unclear whether he can be kept off the ballot because he had run earlier this year in the Republican primary.

No Election Law Decisions from U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on by May 21, 2018
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On May 21, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two full opinions, but neither was an election law case. There are still five election law decisions that will be issued before the Court goes home for its summer recess, probably at the end of June. All of these decisions will be issued on Mondays, except that because May 28 is a holiday, there will be decisions on Tuesday, May 29.

The five pending election law decisions are three redistricting cases, the case from Minnesota over political clothing at the polls, and the Ohio case on voter registration purges.