On October 7, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed that it will not hear Corsi v Ohio Election Commission, 12-1442. The Ohio state courts had upheld a decision of the Commission that Edmund Corsi must file campaign finance reports, because he blogs about politics and is associated with at least one other individual. Corsi mostly blogs about other things, but he frequently blogs about elected officials in local government in his part of Ohio.
On October 4, Ireland held a referendum on whether to abolish its national Senate. The voters rejected the idea in a close vote. See this story.
On October 3, the Georgia Constitution Party and the Georgia Green Party filed this final brief in Green Party of Georgia v State, 13-11816. The issue is the constitutionality of Georgia’s procedures for minor party and independent presidential candidates to get on the ballot. No one has successfully completed this procedure since 2000. The only other state in which no one has completed the procedure to get on the ballot for President in any of the last three presidential elections is Indiana.
The October 2 Washington Post carried this George F. Will column. The column seems to predict that the Republican Party will hold a national presidential convention in June 2016 instead of either late August or early September. The column also seems to suggest this is a good idea.
But Professor Josh Putnam has this column in response. Putnam is the nation’s leading expert on presidential primary timing, and he argues that Will has overlooked many obstacles to the Republican Party holding a June convention.
On October 3, the Pennsylvania Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties filed this brief in the Third Circuit, in Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele, 13-1952. The issue is Pennsylvania’s unique system for checking the validity of petitions, which puts petitioning groups at risk of paying up to $110,000 in court costs if the petition doesn’t have enough valid signatures.
The U.S. District Court ruled that the plaintiffs don’t have standing, a conclusion that is laughable. The text of the brief is 34 pages and it’s clear and easy to understand.
