Some California Election Officials Wish to Make it Illegal for Any Party to have “Independent” as Part of Name

Posted on by April 6, 2018
5

This Los Angeles Times story about California’s redesigned voter registration form also discusses the American Independent Party. The article reveal that some California county election officials want the legislature to pass a law making it illegal for any party to have the word “Independent” in its name.

Tennessee has a law making it illegal for any party to have the word “independent” in its name, but that law was held unconstitutional by a U.S. District Court a few years ago as a violation of free speech. Later the Sixth Circuit reversed that on the grounds that none of the plaintiff political parties had standing to challenge that law, because neither of them had “independent” in their names. The plaintiff political parties in that case were the Green Party and the Constitution Party.

Nevada Libertarian Party for First Time Has Enough Registrations to Remain Ballot-Qualified

Posted on by April 5, 2018
3

Nevada has two methods for a party to retain its qualified status. It can either run a candidate for any partisan office who polls votes equal to 1% of the number of votes cast in the entire state for U.S. House, or it can have registered members that are equal to at least 1% of the state total.

The Libertarian Party, in the March 2018 voter registration tally, for the first time has registration above 1% of the state total. There is no real practical significance for the party, because it always easily passes the alternate vote test. But, theoretically, the party could now remain on the ballot even if it had no candidates. Of course it is conceivable that its registration total might dip below 1% in the future, so it would then again need to pass the vote test. Thanks to Andy Craig for this information.

North Carolina Republican Party is Helping Independent Legislative Candidate Get on Ballot

Posted on by April 5, 2018
11

North Carolina elects all of its state legislators this year. Republicans managed to recruit someone in every district except one, the State House district, 24th district. It is too late for any new candidates to be added to the May primary ballots. So the Republican Party is backing an independent candidate in that district, Ken Fontenot.

Because the ballot access reform last year did not ease the petition requirement for independent candidates for the legislature, Fontenot needs 2,200 valid signatures, due April 23. That deadline, which was made worse by a bill that was signed into law in early 2017, is certainly unconstitutional. In 1980 North Carolina also had an April petition deadline for independent candidates, and it was struck down that year in Greaves v North Carolina State Board of Elections. The legislature then moved it to June, but in 2017, it forgot why it had done that, and moved the deadline back to April. A lawsuit is currently pending against the April deadline for independent candidates. See this story about how hard the Republican Party is working on the Fontenot petition. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for the link.

Libertarian Elected to Winnebago County, Wisconsin, Board of Supervisors

Posted on by April 5, 2018
1

On April 3, Brian Defferding, a member of the Libertarian Party, was elected to the Winnebago County, Wisconsin Board of Supervisors. The race was nonpartisan and he was the only candidate on the ballot for District 6.

He was simultaneously running for Neenah City Counci, district one, and he did not win that race. Here is his facebook page explaining the incident that caused him to run for both offices. Thanks to Andy Craig for this news.