On April 13, the Independent Voters Project filed this amicus curiae brief in Level the Playing Field v FEC, one of the two pending lawsuits that seeks to open up the general election presidential debates to more than just the Republican and Democratic nominees.
On April 14, the Kentucky Libertarian Party, and the Kentucky Constitution Party, filed this reply brief in Libertarian Party of Kentucky v Grimes, e.d., 3:15cv-86. The lawsuit challenges the Kentucky ballot access laws for new and minor parties. Kentucky is one of eleven states that doesn’t have a procedure for a group to transform itself into a qualified party in advance of any particular election. In addition, Kentucky is one of only two states which applies a vote test to determine if a group polled enough votes to qualify for party status, but only counts the presidential vote, not the vote for any other office.
On April 1, Paul Merritt, a California independent candidate for U.S. Senate, filed a federal lawsuit over (1) the law that forces him to have “party preference: none” on the June 7, 2016 ballot, instead of “independent”; (2) the fact that his ballot statement, which said, “Paul Merritt, Registered Independent voter” was altered to delete those last three words.
The lawsuit, Merritt v Padilla, c.d., 8:16cv-606, is pro se. On April 8, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter refused to grant an order changing the ballot label or changing the statement in the voter pamphlet. The denial was based partly on procedural errors by the plaintiff and partly because the Judge said the Ninth Circuit already upheld denying the label “independent” in Chamness v Bowen, 722 F.3d 1110 (2013). However, the decision in Chamness says that denying an independent candidate the word “independent” on the ballot might be unconstitutional, if any plaintiff submits evidence showing that the denial injures the candidate. But in Chamness, the plaintiff did not present any evidence that “Party preference: none” is worse for independent candidates than “independent”. See this story about Merritt’s lawsuit.
On April 14, the Montana Republican Party said it no longer wishes to participate in the lawsuit against the open primary. See this story. Some of the party’s county organizations will continue with the lawsuit, however.
From the FEC Website:
The Federal Election Commission has declared Jill Stein eligible to receive federal matching funds. Stein is seeking the Green Party nomination for president for 2016.
To become eligible for matching funds, candidates must raise a threshold amount of $100,000 by collecting $5,000 in 20 different states in amounts no greater than $250 from any individual. Other requirements to be declared eligible include agreeing to an overall spending limit, abiding by spending limits in each state, using public funds only for legitimate campaign-related expenses, keeping financial records and permitting an extensive campaign audit.
Based on documents filed by Jill Stein for President on March 28, 2016, contributions from the following states were verified for threshold purposes: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. All of the materials included with this submission may be viewed here. Based on Stein’s initial threshold submission, the Commission has requested that the United States Treasury make an initial payment of $100,000 to Stein’s campaign.
Once declared eligible, campaigns may submit additional contributions for matching funds on the first business day of every month. The maximum amount a primary candidate could receive is currently estimated to be about $48.01 million.
The presidential public funding program is financed through the $3 check-off that appears on individual income tax returns. The program now has two elements: matching payments to participating candidates during the primary campaign and grants available to nominees to pay for the general election campaign. On April 3, 2014, President Barack Obama signed legislation to end the public funding of presidential nomination conventions.
