This news clip, prepared by RT USA, covers the Green Party national meeting held in Iowa City July 26-28. It is 3 minutes and 48 seconds. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the link.
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On July 30, a federal lawsuit was filed against Nebraska’s law that makes it illegal to pay circulators on a per-signature basis. Bernbeck v Gale, case number not assigned yet. The restriction applies to all kinds of petitions and was passed in 2008 over the Governor’s veto. Another part of the 2008 law, which made it illegal for out-of-state residents to circulate in Nebraska, has already been declared unconstitutional.
The new lawsuit also challenges the Nebraska law that requires initiatives to obtain the signatures of at least 5% of the voters in at least two-fifths of Nebraska’s counties. Nebraska has 93 counties and the overwhelming majority are in the center and western part of the state and have very low populations. Generally, county distribution requirements for all types of petitions have been held unconstitutional when they have been challenged.
On July 30, Harry F. Byrd, Jr., died at the age of 98. He was elected to the U.S. Senate from Virginia in 1970 and again in 1976 as an independent. Until Angus King’s victory in Maine in 2012, he had been the only independent ever elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote who got a majority of the vote, even though both major parties had a nominee against him. See this story.
Before 1970, he had previously been elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. He ran as an independent in 1970 because the Virginia Democratic Party was requiring its nominees to take an oath to support the Democratic 1972 presidential nominee. Byrd was not willing to take an oath to support someone when that person had not even yet been chosen.
Arkansas requires 10,000 signatures for a group to become a qualified party. Both the Libertarian Party and the Green Party just launched their Arkansas petitions. State law requires the groups to choose their own start dates, but they must finish within 90 days after starting.
This will be the fifth time the Arkansas Green Party had done this petition drive. Each election year, the Green Party polls a large vote in Arkansas. In 2008 and again in 2012, it even elected a state legislator. But the Arkansas law irrationally removes a party from the ballot unless it polls 3% for the office at the top of the ticket (President in presidential election years, Governor in midterm years). So another expensive, illogical petition drive is about to occur, which not only costs the Green Party scarce resources, but also makes extra work for election officials who must then check the petition.
The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition, which has been working for several years to improve ballot access for minor party and independent candidates, is focusing on persuading State Senator Lloyd Smucker (R-Lancaster) to hold hearings on the ballot access bill, SB 195, by Senator Mike Folmer. The bill has enough support on the Senate State Government Committee that it is plausible it would pass that committee, if only Senator Smucker will hear the bill. Smucker is the chairman of that committee.
Pennsylvania and California are virtually the only states in which the legislatures are still in session, and which ballot access improvement bills are pending. Legislatures in almost all states have gone home for the year.