On March 23, the U.S. Supreme Court refused injunctive relief for the Montana Republican Party, in the lawsuit over whether the party may avoid using an open primary. The case is Ravalli County Republican Central Committee v McCulloch. The primary is June 7, 2016. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have withdrawn their names from the New York April 19 Republican presidential primary ballot. Normally, this season, candidates who cease cmpaigning don’t bother to withdraw their names from ballots. The only names on the New York Republican ballot will be Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Donald Trump.
The next presidential primary is Wisconsin’s April 5 event. The Wisconsin Republican ballot has twelve presidential candidates listed, most of whom have stopped campaigning. Wisconsin required candidates who didn’t wish to be on the ballot to withdraw in mid-January, so it is far too late for any of them to remove their names now.
On March 22, Arizona held a presidential primary for the Green Party. With about 92% of the precincts reporting, the results are: Jill Stein 609; Kent Mesplay 139; write-ins or blank ballots 17.
In 2012, the results of the Arizona Green primary were: Stein 385; Mesplay 50; Richard Grayson 39; Michael Oatman 39; Gary Swing 30; Gerard Davis 18.
Here is the Montana Republican Party’s response to the U.S. Supreme Court, in Ravalli County Republican Central Committee v McCulloch. It was filed on Tuesday, March 22, only a few hours after the state had submitted its brief. The issue is whether the Republican Party can avoid having its June 7, 2016 primary (including the presidential primary) be open to persons who are not Republicans in their heart.
The Texas Tribune has this story about the Texas procedures for independent presidential candidates. The story would be better if it mentioned that the petition deadline for independents running for office other than President is June 30, whereas the presidential independent deadline is May 9. Anyone who challenges the Texas independent presidential petition deadline is overewhelmingly likely to win in court. There is no state interest in requiring independent presidential candidates to file petitions 52 days earlier before other independent candidates must file. The U.S. Supreme Court said in Anderson v Celebrezze that states must have easier ballot access procedures for independent presidential candidates than for other office.
Another deficiency with the Texas law is that presidential independents need 79,939 signatures, whereas independent candidates for other statewide office need 47,086. The U.S. Supreme Court said in Anderson v Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780, at page 795, “The state has a less important interest in regulating Presidential elections than statewide or local elections”, and this quote was a key element of the March 17, 2016 U.S. District Court decision that struck down Georgia’s petition requirement of 50,000 signatures for independent and new party presidential ballot access.
