U.S. District Court Judge James M. Moody, Jr., will hear Libertarian Party of Arkansas v Martin, 4:15cv-635, on Friday, February 19, at 9:30 pm in Little Rock. This is the case against the new state law that says qualified minor parties must choose all their nominees more than a year before the election.
On January 26, U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane heard testimony and arguments in Benezet Consulting v Cortes, m.d., 1:16cv-74. The issues are the ban on out-of-state circulators, the requirement that each petition sheet be notarized, and the ban on a voter signing for two candidates for the same office, as applied to primary petitions.
The hearing lasted six hours. The state mostly argued that the plaintiffs don’t have standing, and that they should have filed the lawsuit earlier. The judge said she will have a ruling out on Wednesday, January 27. The plaintiff is a professional petitioning company.
The California Libertarian Party has told the Secretary of State that independent voters will be able to choose a Libertarian presidential primary ballot in June. This is the first time the California Libertarian Party has made that decision. The only time that independent voters ever before voted in a California Libertarian presidential primary was 2000, when all voters could vote for any presidential candidate from any party, because in 2000 California had a blanket presidential primary.
The Democratic and American Independent Parties in California are also allowing independent voters to vote in their presidential primaries in 2016. The California Democratic Party has always allowed independents to vote in its presidential primaries, starting in 2000. The AIP in the past also let independent voters vote in its presidential primary, with the sole exception of 2012.
Two New Mexico Representatives have introduced HJR 12, to require semi-closed primaries. Currently New Mexico has closed primaries. The proposed constitutional amendment would provide that independent voters be allowed to vote in partisan primaries. The authors are Representative Moe Maestas (D-Albuquerque) and Stephanie Garcia Richard (D-Los Alamos). If the legislature passes it, then the voters would be asked to decide whether it should become part of the State Constitution. Thanks to Carol Miller for this news.
On January 26, U.S. District Court Judge Karen Schreier ruled that the Libertarian and Constitution Parties challenge to South Dakota’s early petition deadline for new parties may proceed. The two parties filed a lawsuit on June 15, 2015, against the new law that said petitions to create a new party are due the first Tuesday of March. The 2015 session of the legislature had moved that deadline to the first Tuesday of March; the old deadline had been the last Tuesday of March.
After the case was filed, the new law was suspended by a successful referendum petition. Therefore, the parties asked the court to amend their complaint, to challenge the old law, which they felt was almost as bad. Whether the deadline is March 1 or March 29, the work must either be done in severe winter weather, or must be done in the year before the election.
The court order grants permission for the case to continue as a challenge to the March 29 deadline. It also says the parties have standing even though, when the case was filed, they had not yet begun petitioning (although, in all the months since the case was filed, they have been petitioning).
