Four Republican Voters File Lawsuit Against Arizona’s Petition Requirement for Candidates to get on Primary Ballot

Posted on by May 18, 2014
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On May 15, four Republican voters filed a federal lawsuit against the Arizona law on how a candidate gets on a primary ballot. Arizona requires petitions for candidates to get on a primary ballot. For statewide office, the petition includes a county distribution requirement. The petition must contain the signatures of one-half of 1% of the number of registered voters throughout the state, and within at least three counties as well. The lawsuit challenges the part of the requirement that requires a certain number of signatures in each of at least three counties.

The plaintiffs argue that the law discriminates against voters who live in populous counties. This year, a statewide Republican candidate who tries to meet the county distribution requirement in Maricopa County (the state’s most populous county) needs 3,553 signatures. But a statewide candidate who wants to meet the requirement in Greenlee County only needs six signatures. Therefore, the value of any particular voter’s signature is much higher in a small population county.

If the lawsuit wins, the practical effect is that statewide candidates would probably get practically all of their signatures in one or two populous counties, and wouldn’t bother to collect a certain number of signatures in various small-population counties.

The case is Arizona Public Integrity Alliance v Bennett, 2:14cv-1044. It has been assigned to Judge Neil Wake, the same judge who recently upheld the February petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties.

Wisconsin Will No Longer Count Write-in Votes Unless Write-in Candidate Files Paperwork

Posted on by May 17, 2014
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On April 2, 2014, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed AB 419. It says that write-ins will no longer be counted, unless the write-in candidate files paperwork. As before, presidential candidates file a write-in declaration of candidacy. For office other than President, write-in votes will only be counted for candidates who filed campaign finance statements. Thanks to Tim San Souci for this news.

Washington State Candidate Filing Closes

Posted on by May 17, 2014
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Washington state candidate filing for the August 5 primary has closed. Here is the list. The state has no statewide offices up this year. For the ten U.S. House races, there are 49 candidates: 23 Republicans, 13 Democrats, one Green, and 12 independents. Some of the independents chose “independent” as a ballot label; some chose “no party preference”; one chose “Work and Wealth”; one chose “National Union”; one chose “Human Rights”; one chose “Citizens.”

Each U.S. House district has at least one candidate from each of the two major parties. Consequently, it is overwhelmingly likely that the November ballot for U.S. House will list only Republicans and Democrats. Ever since 2008, when Washington state started using top-two, the only time someone who wasn’t a major party nominee appeared on the November ballot for Congress or statewide office was once in 2010, when an independent qualified for US House, 7th district, in a race in which no Republican had run.

Former Arizona Legislator Will Run for State Senate as an Independent Candidate

Posted on by May 16, 2014
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On May 16, former Arizona state legislator Tom O’Halleran said he will run for the State Senate as an independent candidate. See this story. He changed his registration from “Republican” to “independent” on May 14. The petition deadline this year for independent candidates in Arizona is May 28. O’Halleran served in the legislature for eight years as a Republican.

Arizona is one of only a handful of states in which no one has ever been elected to the state legislature except Republican and Democratic nominees. Of course, one reason for that is that Arizona has only been a state since 1912. It is unknown if any minor party or independent candidates were ever elected to the Arizona territorial legislature.