Paul Jacob Identifies Hugely Disproportionate Possible Criminal Penalty for Petitioning Infraction

Posted on by May 7, 2015
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Paul Jacob here says he believes that the possible penalty awaiting Dr. Annette Bosworth is probably the most disproportionate penalty ever proposed against anyone for violating an election law relative to petitioning to get on a ballot. She left one of her blank petition sheets at her own office for visitors and patients to sign, because she was petitioning to get on the Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate in South Dakota in 2014. UPDATE: here is the Report about the prosecution of Bosworth.

Because she later signed the bottom of the sheets as the circulator, even though she did not actually see those visitors sign her petition, she is being charged with multiple felonies which could theoretically result in 24 years in prison and fines of $48,000.

The concept that all signatures must be witnessed in not rational. Not all states require the circulator to sign petitions that they circulated. Election officials are free to validate petitions, even if they don’t know who, if anyone, witnessed the petition circulation process. All states except North Dakota have lists of registered voters, so a petition can be validated in 49 states by checking the signature on the petition against the signature on the voter registration form. State requirements that all signatures must be witnessed interfere with the ability of groups and individuals to leave petition sheets on bulletin boards and other places with a stream of potential signers passing by.

Ballotpedia Issues Massively Detailed Report on Competition in U.S. Elections 1972-2014

Posted on by May 7, 2015
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Ballotpedia has issued this report on competition in U.S. elections for state and federal office. There are so many fascinating and important conclusions, it would be a disservice to readers to try to single out any particular findings. The report shows that U.S. state legislative elections in particular are massively uncompetitive, in both primaries and general elections.

Never before has any group or individual accumulated and published this much data about legislative election returns. The report required the authors to collect and analyze the election returns for all legislative districts, in both primaries and general elections, for the last 42 years. In every even-numbered year, there are always more than 6,000 legislative races.

Oklahoma Ballot Access Bill Passes Legislature

Posted on by May 6, 2015
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On May 6, the Oklahoma House passed HB 2181 by 83-0. It had passed the House on March 10, and had passed the Senate on April 22. But the Senate version was different than the House version, so it had to return to the House to see if the House agreed with the Senate amendments. Now the bill goes to Governor Mary Fallin, who is in her second term.

Assuming she signs it, Oklahoma will require 24,745 signatures for a newly-qualifying party for both 2016 and 2018. Without the bill, the 2016 requirement would have been 41,242. The 2014 requirement was 66,744. The new formula will be 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, whereas the old law is 5% of the last vote cast. Under the old law, the requirement skyrockets for midterm years and is lower in presidential years; this is the “see-saw” effect, but the new bill eliminates it.

UPDATE: here is a video of the House action, which lasts about 5 minutes. It consists of the author of the bill telling the House that he urges that the bill as amended by the Senate be passed by the House. He regrets that the Senate tripled the number of signatures, relative to the original bill, but says that is the best deal he can get. He also said that he would consider a bill in the next session to lower the number of signatures. Thanks to Rick Kissell for the link.

New York Times Gives Prominent Coverage to Working Families Party Legislative Win

Posted on by May 6, 2015
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The New York Times has this story about the Working Families Party’s victory in the May 5 special legislative election in Brooklyn. By contrast, when the Working Families Party scored a more impressive win for the Connecticut State Senate on February 24, 2015, the Times did not mention that. The Connecticut victory was more impressive because the Connecticut Working Families nominee defeated a Democratic Party nominee, whereas in New York the Democrats had no nominee on the ballot.