On August 4, Kent Bernbeck filed for reconsideration in Bernbeck v Gale, the case over Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. The Eighth Circuit had voted 2-1 on July 14 that he doesn’t have standing. But, as the petition for rehearing shows, Bernbeck’s original complaint had said he is a voter, and the Eighth Circuit already ruled in the past that a voter has standing to challenge a ballot access restriction.
The publication of the International Socialist Organization, called Socialist Worker (not to be confused with the Socialist Workers Party) describes how the ISO helped Jill Stein get the needed signatures to get on the Vermont ballot.
On August 3, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee passed SB 1288. The bill allows all California cities and counties, not just charter cities and counties, to use instant-runoff for their own elections if they wish. The bill now goes to the Assembly floor.
Seven weeks ago, on June 29, Better for America asked for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in Level the Playing Field v FEC, U.S. District Court, D.C., 1:15cv-1397.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, still hasn’t ruled on whether the amicus can be filed. By contrast, when Sam Husseini asked to file an amicus in this case, his request was denied exactly two weeks after he applied. “Better for America” is the group that hoped to recruit an independent conservative presidential candidate.
August 2 is the Wisconsin deadline for petitions for independent presidential petitions, and the presidential petitions of unqualified parties. Only two such petitions were submitted: Rocky De La Fuente, and Monica Moorehead (presidential nominee of the Workers World Party).
The qualified parties in Wisconsin are Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, and Republican.
