Washington Secretary of State Forces Freedom Socialist Party Candidate for U.S. Senate to Squeeze Both Words in Party Name Together

Posted on by May 18, 2018
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Steve Hoffman has filed to be on the August 2018 Washington state top-two primary ballot as a candidate for U.S. Senate. Washington state law says any candidate can choose any partisan label as long as it is not obscene and is not longer than 16 characters. However, a space counts as a character. Therefore, the ballot will put “prefers FreedomSocialist Party” on the ballot instead of “Prefers Freedom Socialist Party.”

No other state controls the number of characters in a partisan label. Other states instead control the number of words. Typically three words are permitted, but sometimes five. The Freedom Socialist Party and Hoffman are considering suing to improve the label from “FreedomSocialist” to “Freedom Socialist.”

New York Ban on Out-of-State Circulators Struck Down

Posted on by May 18, 2018
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On May 18, the New York state ban on out-of-state circulators was declared unconstitutional. Here is the 25-page decision in Free Libertarian Party v Spano, e.d. 1:16cv-3054. The case was originally called Merced v Spano and had been filed in 2016.

The state tried to argue that the ban on out-of-state circulators was not severe, because the Libertarian Party had successfully petitioned in New York many times in the past. But the decision says, “The Supreme Court has refused to overlook an unconstitutional restriction upon some First Amendment activity simply because it leaves other First Amendment activity unimpaired.” That quote was from California Democratic Party v Jones, the 2000 decision that struck down California’s blanket primary.

The decision is by Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold, a Clinton appointee. One of the plaintiffs was Bill Redpath, a Virginia resident who frequently acts as a volunteer petitioner for Libertarian Party candidates in many states.

Candidate Files for U.S. House in Washington’s District 5 with “Trump Populist” as his Ballot Label

Posted on by May 17, 2018
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Filing for the Washington state primary closes on Friday, May 18. So far four candidates have filed for that seat. One of them is Dave Saulibio, whose ballot label will be “Trump Populist Party.” See this story. Washington lets any candidate choose any partisan ballot label that is no more than 15 characters and is not obscene.

Maine Government Files Brief in Opposition to Republican Party’s Desire to Avoid Ranked Choice Voting

Posted on by May 17, 2018
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On May 17, attorneys for Maine filed this 24-page brief in Maine Republican Party v Dunlap, 1:18cv-179. The lawsuit had been filed earlier this month by the Republican Party, which argued that its freedom of association rights means that the party ought to be free to avoid using ranked choice voting.

The Maine government brief notes that the Republican Party uses a form of ranked choice voting at state conventions, to choose party officers. See page 10. The government brief also has a scholarly footnote 7, mentioning instances from approximately 100 years ago when states required parties to use ranked choice voting in their primaries.