On March 10, the Peace & Freedom Party of California, the Libertarian Party of California, and the Green Party of Alameda County asked the California Supreme Court to hear their ballot access appeal. The case is Rubin v Padilla, S224970. The suit argues that the top-two system, in practice, unconstitutionally prevents minor party voters from voting for their preferred candidates in the general election.
On March 10, the Oklahoma House passed HB 2181 by a vote of 90-0. The eleven members who didn’t vote were all excused that day, which means that no legislator who was in the chamber abstained. The bill now goes to the State Senate. It lowers the petition for a newly-qualifying party to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
On March 9, the opening brief was filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, in D-R Organization of New Jersey v Guadagno, A-206-14. This case was filed in the trial court in August, 2014, but the courts ruled that it should have been filed directly in the Appellate Division, so now that is where it is.
The issue is the proper interpretation of election law 19:5-1, which says, in part, “no political party which fails to poll at any primary election at least 10% of the votes cast in the State for members of the General Assembly at the last general election, held for the election of all members of the General Assembly, shall be entitled to have a party column on the official ballot at the general election for which the primary election has been held.”
In June 2014, the turnout in both major parties was so low that neither party had enough voters in its primary to satisfy the law. However, New Jersey election officials gave both major parties their own party column anyway. Check back in a day or two to read the brief. The plaintiff, the D-R Organization, is a minor party that exists only in New Jersey. It listed many candidates on the general election ballot last year, and expects to have even more in this year’s election for state legislature. New Jersey elects its state officers in odd years.
On March 9, the Arizona House defeated HB 2138 by 26-33. It would have moved the primary for office other than President from the 4th Tuesday in August to the 2nd Tuesday in July. If the bill had passed, the deadlines for non-presidential independent candidate petitions would have moved from May to April, and the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties would have moved from February to January. The February petition deadline is already being contested in the Ninth Circuit, in a case filed by the Green Party last year.
Nebraska and Maine are the only states in which each U.S. House district elects its own presidential elector. According to this story, the Nebraska system is likely to survive. A bill to repeal it, and use winner-take-all, LB 10, seems unable to overcome a filibuster.
