A U.S. District Court in Michigan will hear Moore v Johnson on Wednesday, May 21, at 9:30 a.m. This is one of the cases that challenges Michigan’s law requiring candidate petitions to be circulated only by registered voters. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
On May 16, U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake upheld Arizona’s February petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties. See the 12 page opinion here in Arizona Green Party v Bennett, cv-14-375. The decision says that Arizona needs a petition deadline that early, in order to get ready for the new party’s primary, which is six months after the deadline, on August 26, 2014.
The decision mentions some of the precedents that invalidated early petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties in other states, but does not discuss them, except to imply that they all involve presidential elections. However, some of the precedents mentioned in the decision were not related to presidential elections or presidential candidates.
The decision makes a slight acknowledgement that the state is free to let newly-qualifying parties nominate by convention. The decision does not acknowledge the point that initiative petitions are due in Arizona only four months before the election, and somehow the state is able to cope with the initiative deadline. The party has already filed a notice of appeal.
On May 15, the California Assembly passed AB 2766. The bill deletes the requirement that candidates for County Central Committee must file a loyalty oath, saying they do not advocate the violent overthrow of the government. The existing law was declared unconstitutional last year, and only applies to candidates in the Democratic, Republican, and American Independent Parties.
The leader of the American Independent Party, Mark Seidenberg, had testified against this bill when it was in the Assembly Elections Committee, but the representative of the Secretary of State responded at that hearing that if the party desires to require the oath for its candidates for party office, the party is free to have its own bylaw requiring the oath.
On May 10, the Vermont legislature passed Senate Bill 86, the omnibus election law bill. It moves the petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from June, to August. The presidential petition will always be due August 1. The deadline for independent and minor party candidates for other office will be five days before the primary. In 2014, that deadline will be August 7, and the primary will be August 12.
Assuming the Governor signs the bill, the only states that have an independent presidential petition deadline earlier than July are Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Texas. Illinois, New Mexico, and North Carolina have June deadlines. The Texas statutory deadline is not settled, and is entangled with various lawsuits on redistricting which also affect primary dates.
The Vermont bill also moves the primary from late August to mid-August. It takes effect immediately.
David Weigel has this lengthy story in Slate about Bob Barr. It includes an account of his years with the Libertarian Party.
