New Jersey Elections Office Receives Seven Valid Petitions for President

Posted on by August 2, 2016
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The New Jersey Elections office has received seven petitions for President that appear to be valid. They are for independent presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente, and the presidential candidates of these unqualified parties: Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Socialist Workers, Socialism & Liberation, and Workers World.

Two petitions were rejected. The Socialist Party petition did not have enough valid signatures. The Prohibition Party petition was never checked, because the state elections office couldn’t find all of the party’s presidential elector candidates in the state database. New Jersey does not require presidential elector candidates to be registered voters. However the state theorized that some of the Prohibition Party presidential elector candidates might theoretically be felons, and asked the party to provide a copy of the drivers license for each candidate for presidential elector. The Prohibition Party did not comply with that request.

D.C. Circuit Enjoins FEC Regulation that Bars Unauthorized Committee from Using Candidate’s Name in the Title of Its Web Pages or Social Media Pages

Posted on by August 2, 2016
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On August 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, enjoined a Federal Election Commission regulation that bars unauthorized political committees that lack any connection to fundraising from using the name of a candidate in the committee’s web page title, or social media page title. Pursuing America’s Greatness v FEC, 15-5264. Here is the 18-page decision.

The decision says if the FEC is worried about confusion over whether a web page is the official voice of that candidate, the FEC is free to require such pages to post disclaimers, saying, “This website is not candidate Doe’s Official Webpage.” The decision points out that the FEC already had an exception to its rule, and that if a web page is clearly opposed to a particular candidate, that type of web page may use the candidate’s name in its title. The decision depends partly on the U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year, Reed v Town of Gilbert, striking down a town ordinance that said signs on certain subjects had to be smaller and taken down more frequently than other types of signs.

The plaintiff had lost in U.S. District Court. The plaintiff had wanted to have a web page titled, “I like Mike Huckabee”, even though it was not the official Huckabee campaign web page. The decision is by Judge Thomas Griffith, a Bush Jr. appointee, and is signed by Judges Brett Kavanaugh, a Bush Jr. appointee, and A. Raymond Randolph, a Bush Sr. appointee.

Study Shows that Minor Party and Independent Presidential Candidates do Better in Non-Battleground States

Posted on by June 19, 2019
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The Atlantic has this analysis by Russell Berman and Andrew McGill, using data to show that minor party and independent presidential candidates in the modern era do better in states in which there is no doubt which major party presidential candidate will carry that state.

This is a common-sense observation, and demonstrates that many U.S. voters are aware of the electoral college and (except in Maine and Nebraska) its winner-take-all rules.

David Gill, Independent Candidate for U.S. House in Illinois, Files Constitutional Challenge to Petition Requirement

Posted on by August 1, 2016
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On August 1, David Gill, an independent candidate for U.S. House in the 13th Illinois district, filed a federal lawsuit against the Illinois requirement that independents for U.S. House need a petition of 5% of the last vote cast. The case is Gill v Scholz, c.d., 1:16cv-3221.

Gill needed 10,754 valid signatures. His petition was challenged, and the process resulted in a finding that only 8,593 of his signatures were valid. The lawsuit does not attack the accuracy of the validity check; instead it is a challenge to the 5% requirement itself.