Michigan Senator Marty Knollenberg (R-Troy) has introduced SB 13, which abolishes the straight-ticket device. Republicans have a majority in both houses of the legislature, and Michigan has a Republican governor. The Michigan Republican Party has long been opposed to the straight-ticket device, so this bill has a good chance of passing. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
George F. Will has this column about U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and the possibility that he will run for president outside the two major parties. Will says Sanders has said he might have trouble getting on ballots, and then chides Sanders, saying George Wallace got on in 1968 in all states even though Wallace had a “miniscule” budget. Will also says ballot access in 1968 for Wallace was more difficult than it is today.
Wills’ blanket statement that ballot access for a presidential candidate running outside the major parties was more difficult in 1968 than today is misleading. During the period 1969-1971, more hostile changes were made to the ballot access laws than at any other time in U.S. history, so it is certainly true that ballot access in 2015 is easier than it was in 1972. But there is a big difference between 1968 and 1972. Ballot access for president was easier in 1968 than it is today in these 19 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. Wallace only needed 52,051 valid signatures from those 19 states, whereas in 2016 someone running outside the major parties, and using the easier method, would need 272,958 valid signatures in those 19 states (Pennsylvania’s 2016 petition requirement can’t be known now, but this calculation estimates 25,000).
Wallace didn’t need any signatures at all in Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Montana, or New Mexico, because in 1968 those states let any party on the ballot with no petition; it just had to request a place on the ballot.
Will could have said that Sanders is free to seek the Green Party nomination. The Green Party is on the ballot for president in 2016 in states containing 55.4% of the total popular 2012 vote, and that percentage will rise as the Green Party completes more petitions during 2015 and 2016.
Eight Republican New Hampshire legislators have introduced HB 185, to restore the straight-ticket device. New Hampshire eliminated it in 2007, after Democrats won control of the legislature in 2006.
The general argument in favor of straight-ticket devices is that many voters are too uninterested to finish filling out their ballot, so they leave the offices toward the bottom of the ballot blank. But this argument makes little sense in New Hampshire, where the voters have fewer partisan offices on the ballot than in most states. New Hampshire voters do not elect judges, and they do not elect any statewide executive positions except Governor.
Only eleven states still have a straight-ticket device, and in two of them (Iowa and West Virginia) there are bills pending to abolish it. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the news about the New Hampshire bill. The eight sponsors of the New Hampshire bill are Senator Gary Daniels, and Representatives Dick Marston, James Spillane, Joseph Lachance, John Mullen, Joseph Hagan, Don LeBrun, and Kathleen Souza.
On January 13, 2015, two individuals who had previously run for President filed a petition for cert with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to rule that California election officials have a constitutional duty to investigate the constitutional qualifications of presidential candidates before listing them on the ballot. The two individuals who filed the case are John Albert Dummett, Jr., and Edward C. Noonan. Dummett had declared for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and is also seeking the nomination in 2016. He lives in California. Edward C. Noonan, another Californian, had sought the presidential nomination of the American Independent Party in 2012. The case is Dummett v Padilla, 14-826.
The cert petition takes pains to say that the case is not about President Obama, and that the issue of presidential constitutional qualifications is unsettled law that the Court should settle for the sake of future elections. California’s Secretary of State kept some minor party presidential candidates off the 2012 presidential primary ballots because of constitutional qualification concerns, yet refused to investigate the qualifications of some major party presidential candidates in both 2008 and 2012. The problem for lawsuits like this one is that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to reject electoral votes cast for ineligible presidential candidates. Page 26 of the cert petition says, “After a general election has occurred, it is unrealistic to expect that objections will be lodged by Members of Congress based on the constitutional eligibility of a candidate.”
This particular case was filed in California state courts. The state court of appeals rejected the case last year, and the California Supreme Court refused to hear it on October 15, 2014.
This article about the ballot-qualified United Independent Party contains some interesting details about Massachusetts election law. It says that individuals can only give $1,500 to an unqualified party, but that an individual can give $15,000 to a qualified political party.
It also says that if the United Independent Party can increase its registration to 1% of the state total by the end of 2015, then the party’s qualified status will continue into 2018. That was already known, but what is new is that those voters need not remain with the party indefinitely. The party’s status will be safe if those people leave the party and re-register as independents (or as members of some other party, if they wish) so that they can vote in the March 2016 presidential primary and also the September 2016 primary for other office.
The United Independent Party, the Green Party, and the two major parties are the ballot-qualified parties in Massachusetts. Unless the law is changed, the Green Party is likely to lose its qualified status in November 2016, because it isn’t likely to either poll 3% for President, or to have registration of 1% of the state total. It is conceivable that the legislature might ease the definition of “Political party”, or conceivably an initiative could do that. The United Independent Party probably has the financial resources to do an initiative, and is already planning another initiative to block Boston from bidding for the 2024 Olympics.
