Arthur Jones, Neo-Nazi Winner of Republican Congressional Primary in Illinois, Received 16,458 Votes

Posted on by March 28, 2018
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Illinois held its primaries on March 20. As has been well-reported, Arthur Jones, a Neo-Nazi, won the Republican nomination for U.S. House, 3rd district. Unofficial tallies show he received 16,458 votes. No one was on the ballot against him, and no one filed as a write-in.

By contrast, the last time any Republican ran for U.S. House in the 3rd district, in 2014, there were 28,883 votes cast in the Republican primary for that seat. No Republican ran in 2016.

Republican Party leaders had asked voters to leave their primary ballot blank in that race.

Only 95 Republican Candidates filed for Legislative Seats in California Primary

Posted on by March 28, 2018
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Every election year, California has 100 legislative seats up for election (all 80 Assembly seats, and half of the 40 State Senate seats). In 2018, only 95 Republicans filed to be on the primary ballot to run for a legislative seat.

By contrast, in 1992, there were 217 Republicans who filed to be on the primary ballot for those 100 seats.

There will probably be some more Republicans who file as declared write-in candidates this year. The deadline for that is May 22.

U.S. District Court Rules that Florida Must Have Objective Standards to Determine Which Ex-Felons May Regain Voting Rights

Posted on by March 27, 2018
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On March 27, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker, an Obama appointee, ruled that the U.S. Constitution requires Florida to have objective standards to determine which ex-felons may regain their voting rights. Hand v Scott, n.d., 4:17cv-128. Here is the 22-page decision.

Currently, the Governor of Florida has unfettered discretion to restore voting rights for any ex-felon, but there are no rules for how the Governor makes decisions. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Nebraska State Senator Drops Legal Challenge to Independent Petition Requirement

Posted on by March 27, 2018
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On March 27, State Senator Robert Krist asked a U.S. District Court to dismiss his challenge to the 10% petition requirement for non-presidential independents that the Nebraska legislature passed in 2016. He had filed the lawsuit when he expected to be an independent candidate for Governor. But then he decided instead to seek the Democratic nomination.

Even if he had not voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit, he probably would have lost on standing. His dismissal reserves the right for him to challenge the requirement in the future. Also, of course, any other independent candidate is free to challenge it. The precedents are unanimous that states cannot require independent candidates to collect the signatures of 10% of the number of registered votes. Those precedents are from Ohio, Illinois, Arkansas, and North Carolina.

North Carolina State Board of Elections Recognizes that Green Party is now Ballot-Qualified

Posted on by March 27, 2018
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On March 27, the North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously voted that the Green Party is a ballot-qualified party. This is because the 2017 law said that any party whose presidential nominee was on the ballot in at least 35 states in the previous election is a qualified party. The reason it took so long for the Board to recognize the Green Party is that there were no members of the Board (owing to a dispute between the Governor and the legislature) until last week. Thanks to Mark Henkle for this news.