The Arkansas Libertarian Party now has almost 10,000 signatures on its petition to regain party status. The law requires 10,000 valid signatures, so the drive is more than half done. Assuming the drive succeeds, the party will then be on the ballot for president in 31 states. Four years ago this month, it was on in 27 states.
Bills have passed committees in both houses of the Nevada legislature for a presidential primary, which would replace the state’s caucuses. SB 421 passed the Senate Legislative Operations & Elections Committee on April 10, and AB 302 passed the Assembly Legislative Operations & Elections Committee on April 9.
The Senate bill is more specific and provides for a presidential primary on the last Tuesday of February, which would be February 23 in 2016. It seems to allow any candidate to appear on the ballot just by filing a declaration of candidacy. Only parties with 10% of the registration would have a presidential primary. Candidates would file in November of the year before the election. The Senate bill is sponsored by the Committee. The Assembly bill is sponsored by the Assembly Speaker, John Hambrick. According to this story, the state Republican Party now wants a presidential primary. Both houses of the Nevada legislature have Republican majorities and the state has a Republican Governor.
The Senate bill would move the primary for non-presidential office from June to February, in all even-numbered years, even midterm years. The Assembly bill would not affect the June primary for non-presidential office.
Alabama SB 221 is likely to receive a vote on the Senate floor during the week of April 27-May 1. Bills that have passed committee and are awaiting a Senate vote “stand in line”, and SB 221 is now number nine in the list. The Alabama Senate usually holds floor sessions on two days a week, and it is not possible to know which two days that will be in the coming week. SB 221 lowers the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties and non-presidential independents from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5%. It also provides for a later petition deadline for new parties. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for this news.
On Friday, April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether or not to hear two election law cases. One is Citizen Center v Colorado Secretary of State, 14-998, over whether the U.S. Constitution protects secrecy in voting. Citizen Center had sued the Secretary of State, and six county election officials, in 2012 because the ballot-counting equipment theoretically could have let election officials see how particular voters voted. The U.S. District Court said there is no protection for secrecy in the U.S. Constitution. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit said the election officials had mostly fixed the problem so most of the claims in the lawsuit are moot.
It is not likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this case, because the election officials declined to file a response to the cert petition, and the U.S. Supreme Court did not then ask them to respond.
The other case is O’Keefe v Chisholm, 14-872. The case involves the behavior of Wisconsin law enforcement officials who made repeated night raids on persons suspected of illegally coordinating campaign strategies. The lead plaintiff is Eric O’Keefe, who was once the National Director of the Libertarian Party. This case has gathered much publicity. Here is a news story that explains the case.
The U.S. Supreme Court will probably reveal whether it has taken either of these cases on Monday morning, April 27.
On April 23, a Pennsylvania state appeals court refused to put Stephanie Singer on the Democratic primary ballot. She is an incumbent City Commissioner who wants to run for re-election. She needed 1,000 valid signatures. She submitted 1,485 but the trial court found that only 996 signatures were valid. Afterwards, she obtained affidavits from 16 voters whose names had been invalidated but who swore they did indeed sign her petition. The appeals court said that evidence was too late. See this story. Pennsylvania allows write-in votes in primaries but the story suggests that she has given up.
