Florida Prison Officials Won’t Allow Prisoner Subscribers to Receive their Copies of The Militant

Posted on by October 14, 2013
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The Militant is the weekly newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party. It is the only printed weekly newspaper published by any political party in the United States. A recent issue of The Militant had a news story about a hunger strike in certain California prisons. Florida prison officials have refused to allow that issue to be delivered to the 32 prisoners who subscribe to The Militant. See this story from The Militant. Florida prison officials say that if their prisoners read that issue, they may also launch a hunger strike. However, many other newspapers also covered the hunger strike.

It seems somewhat likely that, if the prison doesn’t back down, the ACLU will help The Militant to sue the prison officials.

New Los Angeles County Registration Data

Posted on by October 13, 2013
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California does not release a statewide registration tally during odd years, except once near the beginning of the year. But Los Angeles County keeps a running tally, and since the county has 26% of the population of California, the Los Angeles County data is significant. See the tally at this link. Scroll down.

The October 13 tally shows that during the last month, every qualified party has more registrants than it had on September 10, except for the Republican Party, although the changes are slight.

The totals for October 13 are: Democratic 2,463,594; Republican 1,032,655; American Independent 109,018; Peace & Freedom 33,169; Libertarian 26,166; Green 24,587; Americans Elect 2,478; miscellaneous and people who leave the party choice question blank 306,594; independent 853,384.

The totals for September 10 were: Democratic 2,454,773; Republican 1,032,775; American Independent 108,275; Peace & Freedom 31,838; Libertarian 25,882; Green 24,473; Americans Elect 2,471; miscellaneous and blank 290,557; independent 854,712.

Tennessee Green and Constitution Parties File New Ballot Access Lawsuit

Posted on by October 13, 2013
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On October 10, the Tennessee Green Party, and the Tennessee Constitution Party, filed a new ballot access lawsuit, Green Party of Tennessee v Hargett, 3:13cv-1128, middle district.

The lawsuit has two points. The first is that because the two parties were put on the ballot by a U.S. District Court in 2012, and because the Sixth Circuit refused to stay that action, therefore the parties should also be on the ballot automatically for the 2014 election. The Tennessee law says that when parties meet the vote test, they should remain ballot-qualified for the next four years.

The second point challenges the law requiring newly-qualifying parties to submit an affidavit that they do not advocate the overthrow of the government by force or violence. The affidavit also must say that the parties are not affiliated with any other organization that advocates the overthrow of the government by force or violence. In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously invalidated an Indiana law that also required newly-qualifying parties to submit such an affidavit.