The Associated Press has used research from the National Conference of State Legislatures to show which states have the highest percentage of women in state legislature and other important public office, and which states have the lowest. See it here. Thanks to Carla Marinucci for the link.
Law Professor Bob Bauer praises the outcome in Unnamed Plaintiff #1 v Federal Election Commission. See the blog post earlier today about that case. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Earlier this year, the Tennessee legislature passed HB 2079, which makes it more difficult for a party to remain on the ballot. The old law said that a party was a group that had polled 5% for a statewide race at either of the last two elections. The new law says it is a group that polled 5% for a statewide race at the last election. The bill passed unanimously and was signed into law on April 28, 2016.
The motive for the bill was the Green Party win in the Sixth Circuit of July 2, 2015. The old law said a group that successfully petitioned for party status was then entitled to be on the ballot for one election. The Sixth Circuit had ruled that the law was discriminatory. A new party that successfully petitioned only got one election, but an old party had two elections to meet the vote test.
The flaw in the law could have been fixed in two ways: either the law could have said that a petitioning group is entitled to two elections; or the law could have deprived old parties of the ability to meet the vote test at either of the last two elections. The legislature chose the restrictive solution instead of the liberalizing solution.
States that allow a party to meet the vote test at either of the last two elections, instead of just the last election, are Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The federal campaign finance laws let individuals donate as much money as they wish to Delegates to presidential conventions, or to candidates for Delegate. However, the laws do not permit corporations to donate any money to Delegates, or to candidates for Delegate. However, on July 22, the FEC settled a lawsuit, and now will let non-profit corporations donate to Delegates or candidates for Delegate.
The lawsuit had been filed on May 25, 2016, by two unnamed Delegates to the Republican national convention. They had argued that they want to receive free legal help from a legal non-profit corporation, the Pillar of Law Institute. They said they might need legal help because they oppose Donald Trump and that Trump had threatened to sue or otherwise harass them if they tried to defeat Trump for the nomination. The Complaint had started out with these sentences: “The 2016 election season has become a dangerous environment. As explained by Roger Stone, ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, “We will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal.” The case is Unnamed Plaintiff #1 v FEC, filed in Wyoming U.S. District Court, 2:16cv-135. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Elections for this news.
The Independent Party of Oregon held its own private presidential primary earlier this month. Here are the results. Because no candidate got as much as 50%, the party will not nominate anyone for president. And even if there were no such party rule, the winner of the primary is Bernie Sanders, and he would not have accepted the nomination. Donald Trump was a close second in the primary, and if he had won the primary, and the party had decided to nominate him, he would then have been on the November ballot in Oregon as “Republican, Independent.”
