U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan Asks Ohio to Respond to Ohio Libertarian Request

Posted on by August 24, 2016
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On Wednesday, August 24, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan asked Ohio to respond to the Libertarian Party’s brief of August 23. The response is due Thursday, August 25, at 3 p.m. 16A181.

By contrast, last time the Ohio Libertarian Party asked Justice Kagan to act on its application, she denied the request in two days without having asked for a response. That was the same case, in an earlier stage, when the party hoped to be allowed to participate in the 2016 primary. That application was 15A725, filed on January 12, 2016, and denied on January 14, 2016.

The Kagan request for the current case requires fast action by Ohio. By contrast, the North Carolina voting rights case, North Carolina v North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, was submitted by the state of North Carolina on August 15, and Chief Justice John Roberts asked for a response from the other side by August 25.

Ohio Accepts Two Presidential Independent Petitions and Rejects Two Others

Posted on by August 24, 2016
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On August 24, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office said that the independent presidential petitions of Gary Johnson and Richard Duncan both have enouvh valid signatures. Both of them had approximately 12,000 signatures. The requirement is 5,000.

The Secretary of State’s office said that the petitions for Darrell Castle and Michael Steinberg do not have enough valid signatures. The Steinberg petition consisted of Steinberg for president and Rocky De La Fuente for vice-president. In other states these two are also running mates, but De La Fuente is the presidential candidate and Steinberg is the vice-presidential candidate. The De La Fuente campaign reversed the names on the Ohio petition to avoid having a fight with the Secretary of State over the sore loser law.

The three qualified parties in Ohio are Democratic, Green, and Republican.

Daily Kos Lambasts Washington State Top-Two System

Posted on by August 23, 2016
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Daily Kos has this article about the August 2, 2016 Washington state primary, and the Treasurer’s race. Three Democrats and two Republicans filed. Even though 52% of the electorate voted for one of the three Democrats, only two Republicans will be on the November ballot, because they came in first and second.

The Daily Kos story properly blames the top-two system for the result, which is that voters who want a Democrat to be Treasurer are disenfranchised in November. Washington state permits write-ins in the general election, and conceivably a Democrat could launch a write-in campaign. But the state won’t let any of the three Democrats who filed in the primary be write-in candidates. Thanks to Jan Tucker for the link.