The October 2 Washington Post has this lengthy and sympathetic article about Rob Sarvis, the Libertarian nominee for Virginia Governor. The Washington Post has traditionally been very uninterested in covering minor party and independent candidates, and the Post even ignored Sarvis until August this year.
UPDATE: here is a lengthy interview with Sarvis, on Reason magazine’s web page.
On September 30, a lower state court ruled that the “Save Westport Now” party nominees should be on the ballot for the November 5, 2013 election. See this story.
Connecticut has a new election law that requires candidates nominated by convention to sign the documents sent in by the party to election officials. Because the new law was not publicized, and even some local election officials did not know about it, there were several towns around the state in which the new law kept parties that nominate by convention off the ballot. The article does not exactly explain why the judge ruled in favor of the party, but it is probably because of due process problems implementing the new law. UPDATE: there is hope that the ruling can be used to help other minor parties in municipal partisan elections beyond just Westport. See this story. Thanks to Timothy McKee for the new link.
This Examiner article discusses two recent polls that put Robert Sarvis, Libertarian nominee for Governor of Virginia, above 10%. One is 10.8% and one is 12%. One of the polls has interested data about the preferences of various age groups.
On October 2, the Ohio Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee did not vote on SB 193, the bill that revises ballot access for new and minor parties. The Committee wants to take more time before making a decision.
If Ohio legislators want to be truly creative, they should simply abolish mandatory petitions to create a new party. As recently as 1948, twelve states didn’t require new or small parties to submit any petition to get on the ballot. Instead, these twelve states simply required parties to demonstrate that they had an organization in the state. Florida, Mississippi, and Vermont still use that model today. Also, there are a growing number of states that use registration data, instead of petitions, to determine which parties are on the ballot. That idea would be difficult for Ohio to implement, however, because Ohio voter registration forms don’t ask the applicant to choose a party.
The twelve states that, in 1948, only required a group to be organized were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia (for president only), Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. No state in 1948 had a crowded general election ballot. No state had more than seven presidential candidates on its ballot.
Petitions cost governments money. On the average, election administrators must pay $1 for each signature checked.
Ohio is also free to permit candidates who petition for a place on the general election ballot to choose a partisan label, that would be printed on the ballot next to the candidate’s name. Ohio permitted labels for candidates who used the independent procedure, between 1891 and 1947. The current law says that candidates who use the independent procedure must choose either to have no label at all, or “no party candidate” or “other party candidate.” Thanks to Kevin Knedler for the news about the committee.
The October 2 Sacramento Bee has this column by Dan Walters, the paper’s veteran political commentator. The column discusses AB 857, the bill to require that at least 10% of all signatures for initiatives must be gathered by unpaid workers. Governor Jerry Brown has until October 13 to decide whether to sign or veto the bill.
