The Red Dirt Report, an on-line Oklahoma newspaper established in 2007, has this story about the Libertarian Party’s attempt to get on the 2016 ballot in Oklahoma, and also mentions the Green Party attempt. The story includes a picture of Andy Jacobs, long-time professional petitioner.

The story does not mention the fact that many public libraries in Oklahoma are currently telling petitioners they can’t be on public sidewalks in front of those libraries. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that public sidewalks (with limited exceptions) must be open for First Amendment activity, including petitioning. The Court has been saying this repeatedly since 1939; the first such decision was Hague v CIO, 307 US 496. Jersey City, New Jersey, had promulgated rules prohibiting leafleting on city sidewalks, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Jersey City rules.

On September 10, the California Senate passed AB 1461 by 25-15. Later on the same day, the Assembly passed it. It provides that California adult citizens who obtain a drivers license, or a state ID card, or who renew those, or who file a change of address in connection with those two pieces of ID, will be automatically registered to vote. However if the individual says he or she does not want to be registered to vote, there will be no automatic registration.

Although such individuals will later be asked to make a choice about partisan affiliation, individuals who don’t respond will be registered with a partisan affiliation of “unknown”. Section 2265 says that for purposes of determining whether a party has enough registered voters to qualify, the percentage calculation won’t include the “unknown” voters. The law currently requires a party to have .33% of the total state registration in order to qualify or remain qualified, but when the percentage is calculated, “unknown” voters will be excluded from the denominator.

Early in the morning of September 11, one male Michigan state legislator resigned and one female Michigan state legislator was expelled, due to their having had an affair and then trying to cover it up. See this story. The actions of the legislature occurred between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.