On January 15, a Kansas state trial court issued an opinion in Belenky v Kobach, Shawnee Co. 2013-cv-1331. The Secretary of State had promulgated a regulation saying that voters who registered to vote in Kansas using the federal voter registration form can only vote for federal office. He set up a dual registration list, one for voters who used the state form, and one for voters who used the federal form.

After the lawsuit was underway, the Secretary of State put the plaintiff-voters in this lawsuit on the roster to vote in all elections, not just federal elections. That was his attempt to derail this particular lawsuit. But that didn’t work, and the state court ruled that the Secretary’s dual registration roster does not comply with Kansas statutes. Here is a link to an ACLU press release that has a link to the opinion.

The reason the Secretary of State set up a dual registration system is that he doesn’t like the federal form, because the federal form does not require applicants to attach proof of citizenship. Applicants sign under penalty of perjury that they are citizens. The state form does require documents to be attached. See this news story about the decision.

The Peace & Freedom Party has asked the California Secretary of State to list these four names on its presidential primary ballot: Lynn Kahn, Gloria LaRiva, Monica Moorehead, and Jill Stein.

Assuming the Secretary of State accepts this list, this will be the first presidential primary in any state in U.S. history to consist entirely of female candidates. Lynn Kahn is an independent presidential candidate who lives in Maryland. Jill Stein is also seeking the Green Party nomination, and she lives in Massachusetts. Gloria LaRiva is the presidential nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and she lives in California. Monica Moorehead is the presidential nominee of the Workers World Party, and she lives in New York.

On January 15, attorneys for the Connecticut Secretary of State filed a 15-page brief in defense of the ban on out-of-state circulators. The state brief says that Connecticut ballot access procedures for minor parties and independents are easier than the procedures of most states. This is not true and can be rebutted. Between the period 1992 and 2012, the Connecticut general election ballot only had 3.2 presidential candidates on the ballot (in addition to the Democratic and Republican nominees), whereas the average state had 4.4 such candidates. Connecticut was 36th among the 51 jurisdictions that participate in presidential elections. This data is in the June 1, 2014 print issue of Ballot Access News.

To show how difficult Connecticut ballot access is, only Gary Johnson successfully petitioned for President in Connecticut in 2012. The Green Party nominee has not appeared on the Connecticut ballot in either of the last two presidential elections.

The government brief also says that the Libertarian Party was able to place its presidential nominee on the ballot in 7 of the last 8 presidential elections. But if the state had included the entire history of the Libertarian Party, it would have had to admit that the Libertarian Party has failed to place its presidential nominee on the Connecticut ballot in four of the eleven presidential elections it participated in: 1972, 1976, 1984, and 2008.

The state also says that challenges to petitions are common in Connecticut, and if there is a challenge, and it goes to court, and the circulator lives out-of-state, it will take longer for that circulator to arrive in Connecticut and that would delay such lawsuits. The state brief does not even discuss the rights of petition circulators themselves.