On July 29, the Connecticut Working Families Party nominated incumbent Governor Dan Malloy for the second time. The party has also nominated him in 2010, when he was first elected. So far, the Working Families Party in Connecticut has never failed to nominate the Democratic nominee, in any statewide race. See this story.
On July 29, Florida State Representative Reggie Fullwood (D-Jacksonville) filed a lawsuit in state court to regain his spot on the Democratic primary ballot. He was kept off the ballot because his Notary Public forgot to check a box on his campaign finance disclosure form. See this story.
Because he is the only candidate who filed, in any party, if he is kept off the ballot, the voters won’t be able to fill the seat in November, and they will go unrepresented until February 2015, when a special election would be held. Florida allows write-in candidates in general elections, but the deadline to file as a declared write-in candidate is so early, it is already too late for Fullwood or anyone else to file as a write-in. The proposed special election will cost the taxpayers over $200,000. Fullwood argues that the error is “de minimis”, not important enough to affect ballot placement.
On July 31, the State Court of Appeals in Sacramento voted 2-1 not to hear Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association v Bowen. The issue was whether Proposition 49 should be removed from the November ballot. Proposition 49 asks voters if they want Congress and the State legislature to help pass a constitutional amendment, overturning the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Citizens United v FEC. The dissenting judge said the California Constitution does not permit advisory statewide ballot measures.
On August 4, a Connecticut trial court in Danbury will hear arguments in a lawsuit to determine who the legitimate state officers of the Independent Party are. See this story. The reference to the court date is at the very end of the article. The Independent Party is ballot-qualified in Connecticut for all the statewide offices except President, and for one of the U.S. House districts, 16 State Senate districts, and 39 state House districts.
On July 31, U.S. District Court Judge Stewart Dalzell granted injunctive relief against Pennsylvania’s ban on out-of-state circulators. Green Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele, eastern district, 2:14cv-3299. The judge ruled from the bench after a hearing that lasted somewhat less than two hours.
The judge declined at this time to enjoin the regulations that say only registered voters may sign petitions, even though the literal language of the law says that persons eligible to register to vote are also permitted to sign such petitions. The issue may arise again in this same case in a few weeks. The judge also declined to grant injunctive relief against the regulation that does not permit residents of different counties to sign the same petition sheet. Nor did he enjoin the law requiring all sheets to be notarized.
There was no need for him to rule on the regulation requiring that signers include the year in the “date” column on the petition, because the state’s witness, Jonathan Marks, Commissioner of Elections, testified that it will not be enforced.
The only states that still enforce a ban on out-of-state circulators for all kinds of petition are Alaska, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. States that ban some types of petition from being circulated by out-of-state circulators are Maine, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Thanks to Bill Redpath for this news.
