The Hawaii Constitution Party has finished its petition for party status. It collected approximately 1,400 signatures to meet a requirement of 707 signatures. This is the first time the party has done a petition in Hawaii since 2008.
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As noted earlier, the Peace & Freedom Party of California asked the California Secretary of State to list Jill Stein on its presidential primary ballot, but the Secretary of State refused. A request was made for any writing that might have explained the Secretary of State’s decision. But that office has replied that such writings will not be made public, because they are “notes, drafts or memoranda that are not retained in the ordinary course of business and are exempt under the deliberative process privilege.”
Before 2012, the California Secretary of State had always printed the names of presidential candidates on the Peace & Freedom Party ballot, if the party had suggested those names. That precedent was broken in 2012, when the former Secretary of State refused to list Peta Lindsay on the grounds that she was under age 35.
On February 18, a Kansas state court ruled that statistician Beth Clarkson can’t have access to the vote-counting machine tapes from the November 2014 election. See this story. The statistician, Beth Clarkson, has identified statistical anomalies in the precinct election returns which, she says, suggests that the vote-counting machines are not producing accurate results.
Professor Derek T. Muller has collected the list of cases in which voters or candidates have filed lawsuits, arguing that Ted Cruz does not meet the constitutional qualifications to be President. They are in state court in Illinois, New York, and Vermont; and federal court in Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, and Utah. The list is posted in Muller’s “Excess of Democracy” blog. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
on February 19, a Cook County Circuit Court will hear a challenge to the ballot position of Ted Cruz, for the Illinois Republican presidential primary ballot. See this story.