On April 22, the Tennessee legislature adjourned for the year. It did not pass SB 2528 or HB 2457 or any other bill on ballot access for newly-qualifying parties. Therefore, the pending Green-Constitution Party ballot access cases will start up again. The cases had been on hold while the court waited to see if the legislature would do anything. The cases challenge the petition to get a new party on the ballot; they also challenge the law on how a party remains on the ballot.
An Oregon public radio station has this interesting story about the Independent Party of Oregon, which has its first government-administered primary next month. The story reveals that candidates may file for the Independent Party primary even if they are not registered members of that party.
This news story says the Marijuana Now Party only needs 800 more signatures on its petition to be a party in Nebraska.
On April 22, the Socialist Equality Party announced that it will run a presidential campaign in 2016. The presidential candidate is Jerry White and the vice-presidential candidate is Niles Niemuth. See the announcement here.
The Socialist Equality Party was once named the Workers League. Under its old name, it first ran candidates in 1974, for Congress. In 1976 it ran no presidential candidate, but it placed eleven candidates for U.S. House on the ballot, including such difficult states as California and Illinois. It also put congressional candidates on the ballot in a few states in 1978, but not in 1980. In 1982 it appeared on the ballot in Michigan, the state with the party’s national office, but no other states. In 1984 it ran its first presidential ticket, and ran Ed Winn for President. He received 10,801 votes. In 1986 it had congressional or gubernatorial candidates on the ballot in Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.
In 1988 it ran Ed Winn for President again; this time he received 18,693 votes. It had no candidates in 1990, and in 1992 ran Helen Halyard for President, but she only polled 3,050 votes because she was only on in Michigan and New Jersey. In 1994 it had congressional candidates on the ballot in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
In 1996 it announced its new party name, Socialist Equality, and ran Jerry White for President. He was only on the ballot in three states and got 2,438 votes. It then stopped running candidates until 2003, when it placed a candidate on the ballot for Governor of California in the special recall gubernatorial election. That candidate, John Burton, received 6,748 votes with a ballot label of “independent.” In 2004 it ran Bill Van Auken for President; he polled 1,861 votes and was on the ballot in five states. In 2006 it was on the ballot for U.S. Senate in New York and U.S. House in Michigan. In 2008 it announced a very late presidential campaign, again running Jerry White, but he did not petition to be on the ballot anywhere and only filed for write-in status in New York, where he was recorded as having received 18 votes. In 2010 it had one candidate on the ballot, for Michigan legislature. In 2012 it again ran Jerry White for President; he was on in three states and received 1,097 votes. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the news of the 2016 announcement.
On April 22, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, issued an order restoring the ability to register to vote to all ex-felons in Virginia who have completed their terms and periods of supervised release. See this communcation from the Governor’s office. Virginia Governors have a state constitutional authority to restore voting rights for ex-felons, but most past Governors only exercised this power on an individual basis.
The order says that while McAuliffe is Governor, similar orders will be issued once per month, to include future eligible persons. The April 22 order is estimated to affect 206,000 persons. Of course, these individuals will now need to register. Thanks to the Brennan Center for this news.
