California State Senators Jerry Hill and Ben Allen have introduced SJR 3. If passed, the legislature would be on record as endorsing the National Popular Vote Plan. Furthermore, the Secretary of the California Senate would forward a copy of the resolution to the leaders of the legislatures of each state that hasn’t already passed the plan.
As reported previously, on September 30, 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson had ruled that independent candidates cannot be forced to submit a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote in special congressional elections, because the time period for circulating such petitions is so much shorter than in a regular election. The state filed a notice of appeal on October 28, and its brief was to be due December 27, 2016.
However the state has requested a time extention, so now its brief is due January 26, 2017. This case has growing importance if U.S. Senate Jeff Sessions resigns early next year to become Attorney General of the United States, and if (as expected) Alabama then calls a special U.S. Senate election sometime in the first half of 2017. The case is Hall v Merrill, 16-16766. The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) is helping with some of the expenses of this case. COFOE greatly appreciates all the individuals who have joined COFOE and, with their dues, made this possible.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 16-580, at its January 6, 2017 conference. This is the lawsuit in which the Libertarian Party challenges the 2013 Ohio ballot access law. It is not related to the two ballot access cases in the Ohio state court system.
Ballot Access News
December 1, 2016 – Volume 32, Number 7
| This issue was printed on tan paper. |
Table of Contents
On December 28, the Ohio Supreme Court set out a briefing schedule for State ex rel Fockler v Husted, 2016-1863. The Libertarian brief is due January 3, 2017; the state brief is due January 6; the Libertarian reply is due January 11. The issue is whether the Gary Johnson vote last month created a new ballot-qualified party.
