The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Libertarian Party of Kentucky v Grimes, 16-1034, at its May 11 conference. The issue is the state’s definition of a qualified party, which makes it impossible for a group to become ballot-qualified unless it makes a certain showing in a presidential race.
This story says independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin still owes his election law attorneys $520,000, from work they did for him during 2016. Yet, McMullin and his attorneys did not file any ballot access lawsuits. He could have been on the ballot in more than twelve states if he had done so. He had a very strong potential cases against Florida, Texas, and Wyoming.
A party called Better for America, which was formed in the spring of 2016 to find a candidate similar to McMullin, did file and win a ballot access lawsuit against New Mexico. Better for America then got on the ballot in New Mexico and nominated McMullin, so he was on the New Mexico ballot because of a lawsuit. However he himself had no connection to that lawsuit. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
The Los Angeles Times has this April 19 editorial in favor of moving California’s primary (for all office) from June to March, in presidential years. But the editorial warns against moving it to February. The bill sets the date in March but gives the Governor authority to move it to an even earlier date.
On April 18, Thomas Breck, the Green Party nominee for U.S. House in Montana’s May 25 special election, issued a press release saying he plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to put him on the ballot. See this story. Breck complied with the 400-signature requirement mandated by the U.S. District Court. But the U.S. District Court created that requirement after it was too late for Breck or anyone else to use it, which seems to violate basic fairness.
On April 19, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to rehear State ex rel Fockler v Husted, 2016-1863, one of the Libertarian Party’s ballot access cases. This case involved whether the Gary Johnson vote in November 2016 created a new ballot-qualified party. The request for reconsideration had been pending since January 2017.
The court made no comment, except to say the request is denied. The effect of this three-month wait for a response from the court has been very bad for the Ohio Libertarian Party. It made it more difficult for the party to raise the funds to pay for the 2018 petition, because donors were hesitant to donate because there was some hope that the Supreme Court would grant reconsideration. The Libertarian Party, and any other group that wishes to be a qualified party in 2018, needs 54,965 valid signatures by July 2018. The Green Party is already on the ballot for 2018 because it polled more than 2% for Governor in 2014. Libertarians were on the ballot in 2014, but not for Governor.
The Libertarian Party 2018 petition for 2018 does have approximately 20,000 signatures so far. The Libertarian Party also has a case pending in the Ohio State Court of Appeals as to whether the 2013 ballot access law violates the Ohio Constitution. The Ohio Constitution appears to mandate primaries for all parties, but the 2013 law says newly-qualifying parties are not provided with a primary.
