Illinois Special U.S. House Election Gives Voters Only Two Choices; Turnout is Very Low

Posted on by September 11, 2015
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On Thursday, September 10, Illinois held a special U.S. House election to fill the vacancy in the 18th district. According to this news story, Darin LaHood, the Republican nominee, received 34,907 votes; Robert Mellon, the Democratic nominee, received 15,840 votes. That totals only 50,747 votes, although when the results are official, they will probably be slightly higher.

The last time Illinois held a special U.S. House election, on April 9, 2013, to fill the vacant 2nd district seat, there were six candidates on the ballot: one Democrat, one Republican, one Green, and three independents. The turnout in that election was 83,193 votes cast, significantly better than the September 2015 race. The reason there were alternate candidates on the ballot in 2013 is that a U.S. District Court Judge had struck down the 5% petition requirement for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, as applied to special elections. That case was Jones v McGuffage, a Green Party ballot access victory. Despite the 2013 court victory, Illinois election officials continued to require 5% petitions in the September 2015 race, and no one went to court in 2015 to change that.

Oklahoma On-Line Newspaper “Red Dirt Report” Publicizes Minor Party Petition Drives Underway in Oklahoma

Posted on by September 11, 2015
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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.

California Legislature Passes Bill Setting Up Green Party Internal Procedures

Posted on by September 11, 2015
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On September 10, the California legislature passed AB 477. It sets up internal operating rules for the Green Party. The Green Party has been using the Peace & Freedom internal rules ever since the Green Party qualified in 1992, because until now, the California election code only had internal rules for the four oldest parties (Republican, Democratic, American Independent, and Peace & Freedom). The election code has said that other parties should just choose one of those four. But now there are five parties with their own internal rules in the law (or there will be as soon as Governor Brown signs the bill).

This bill gives the Green Party the authority to designs its own districts for electing party officers. Each district would elect members to the “county council”, but the districts could actually be portions of counties. Here is the text of AB 477. The bill has another part that has nothing to do with the Green Party. The other part of the bill deals with voters who forgot to sign the outer envelope of their mailed ballot when they returned it to the election office. The bill gives them a chance to correct the error within eight days.

California Legislature Passes Bill for Automatic Registration, After Amending it to Protect Minor Parties

Posted on by September 11, 2015
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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.

Constitution Party is Now On Ballot for President in Alaska

Posted on by September 11, 2015
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The Alaska Division of Elections has finally determined that the Constitution Party’s petition for presidential ballot status is valid. The party had submitted the petition in June. It took the state months to check the signatures because the Division of Elections has very few employees this year and they had been busy checking the signatures on an initiative petition. Thanks to J. R. Myers for this news.