Alabama law says when a special congressional or legislative election is to be held, and only one candidate qualified, the election is cancelled. There will be a special election for State House, 67th district, in April. But the only reason the election is being held is because an independent candidate, Toby Gordon, succeeded in petitioning. Otherwise the only candidate would have been the Democratic Party’s choice, and so no election would have been held. See this story.
The U.S. Supreme Court conference of February 17 will consider whether to hear cases from Hawaii and Montana on open primaries. The Hawaii Democratic Party and the Montana Republican Party both object to being forced to nominate with systems which allow members of other parties to participate. The lower courts in each case ruled that the parties cannot prevail because they didn’t present evidence proving that the open primary injures them. Both parties argue that it is almost impossible to come up with direct evidence.
The cases are Ravalli County Republican Party v McCulloch, 16-806; and Democratic Party of Hawaii v Nago, 16-652.
Ever since 1982, Maryland has required independent candidates to file their petitions in early August of election years. But in 2015, an amendment was made to Maryland election law that, in the eyes of some, forced independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February of the election year. February is when candidates seeking to run in a party nominating process must file a declaration of candidacy.
On February 1, 2017, the Maryland State Court of Appeals, the highest state court, ruled that the law does not require independent candidates to file anything until August of the election year. Lamone v Schlakman, 2016-50. The state board of elections had taken this position and did not believe an early declaration is needed. But when the Board allowed an independent candidate, Dan Sparaco, to qualify for Baltimore city council in 2016, even though Sparaco had not filed a declaration of candidacy in February 2016, one of the other candidates for the same seat had filed a challenge. The lower state court had removed Sparaco from the ballot, but the State Court of Appeals had put him back on, and had said it would explain its reasoning later. The February 1, 2017 decision now settles the issue.
If the state law did require independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February, such a law would almost certainly have been held unconstitutional. Maryland is in the Fourth Circuit, and the Fourth Circuit in 1990 struck down a similar South Carolina law.
On January 26, 2017, West Virginia Delegate Rupie Phillips changed his registration from Democratic to independent. See this story. Although such switches around the nation have not been rare during the past decade, it is highly unusual for West Virginia. The voters of the state have not elected anyone to the legislature who was not a Democrat or a Republican since 1906, when the Prohibition Party won a delegate.
Phillips represents the 24th Delegate district, and lives in Logan County, in the southwest part of the state. That district elects two Delegates. In the November 2016 election, there had been two Democratic candidates and one Republican. Phillips received 5,174 votes; the other Democrat. Ralph Rodighiero, received 7,227 votes. They were both elected. The only other candidate, Republican Aaron Stone, received 3,632.
If Phillips runs for re-election in 2018 as an independent, he will be helped by the fact that the West Virginia legislature repealed the straight-ticket device a few years ago. Thanks to Michael Straw for the link.
Georgia State Senator Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) has introduced SB 112. It would eliminate mandatory ballot access petitions for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. If this bill passed, the Georgia general election ballot still wouldn’t be crowded, because independent and minor party candidates pay high filing fees (Georgia has the second highest filing fees of any state, 3% of the annual salary).
The only petitions would be for persons who allege they cannot afford to pay the filing fee.
Florida gets along with a system like this, and has ever since 1999. Thanks to Amanda Swafford for this news.
