Jonathan Rauch has this important and lengthy article in The Atlantic, suggesting that laws that weaken political parties are doing great damage to the United States. He is also critical of the laws passed starting in 1974 that regulate federal campaign finance. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough is expected to issue a decision on Thursday, August 25, in Gill v Scholz, central district, 3:16cv-3221. The trial was on August 24. See this story about the hearing. The plaintiff is David Gill, an independent candidate who needed 10,754 valid signatures. He submitted 11,300, but he was challenged and only 8,593 were held to be valid.
UPDATE: see this further story, which is more detailed than the first story.
The Minnesota deadline for independent presidential petitions, and the presidential petitions of unqualified parties, is August 23. The Minnesota Secretary of State has now determined that all seven petitions submitted are valid. Here is the list from the Secretary of State’s web page.
The groups are American Delta, Constitution, Green, Independence, Legal Marijuana Now, Libertarian, and Socialist Workers. The American Delta nominee is Rocky De La Fuente, and the Independence nominee is Evan McMullin.
Better for America is a ballot-qualified party in Arkansas, for purposes of the presidential election only. On August 24 it certified to the Secretary of State that its national ticket is Evan McMullin for president and Nathan Johnson for vice-president.
Better for America is in state court in New Mexico, trying to show that it does have enough valid signatures. Those are the only two states in which Better for America attempted to get on the ballot, so far.
On August 23, Georgia filed a response in the lawsuit De La Fuente v Kemp, n.d.1:16cv-2937. The case was filed to challenge the Georgia law that says an independent presidential candidate must file a list of his or her presidential elector candidates on July 1, even though the petition itself is not due until July 12 and the petition names the elector candidates.
The state’s response says the case is moot because De La Fuente doesn’t have enough valid signatures anyway. This is surprising, because he submitted approximately 14,500, and the requirement is 7,500. No one had told De La Fuente he didn’t have enough valid signatures until this brief was filed.
In 1980, Georgia told independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson that he didn’t have enough valid signatures, and when Anderson tried to check the validity, the state said it was too late because the ballots were about to be printed. Anderson then sued in federal court, and the judge said due process demanded that Anderson be given time to double-check the validity. Because the state said there was no time, the judge put Anderson on the ballot. That case, Anderson v Poythress, is not reported. De La Fuente’s attorneys are aware of the 1980 precedent.
