Virginia State Senator John S. Edwards (D-Roanoke) has introduced SB 766, to lower the number of signatures for statewide candidates (whether in a primary or in a general election) from 10,000 to 5,000. The bill is similar to legislation that passed in 2013 that lowers the number of signatures for all presidential candidates from 10,000 to 5,000.

Between 1894 and 1935, independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, for office other than President, didn’t need any signatures whatsoever to get on the November ballot. Between 1936 and 1970 they needed 250 signatures. Virginia did not suffer from an overcrowded ballot during those years. However, in 1970 the non-presidential statewide petitions were increased to 1% of the number of registered voters. That was lowered to one-half of 1% in 1971, and lowered again in 1998 to exactly 10,000 signatures. Thanks to Jim Lark for the news about SB 766.

On December 31, 2014, a new on-line petition directed toward the Commission on Presidential Debates was launched. The petition asks the Commission to invite all presidential candidates who are theoretically capable of winning the election. In all U.S. history, no presidential election has ever had more than seven such candidates. The 2012 election only had four such candidates. Here is the link to the group. Thanks to June Genis for the link.

On December 24, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter upheld California’s ban on write-in votes at the general election for Congress and partisan state office. Milonopoulos v Bowen, central district, 2:14cv-5973. The case had been filed by Theo Milonopoulos on July 30, 2014. He was a write-in candidate for U.S. House, 33rd District, in the June 2014 primary, and he only received one write-in vote. But he wanted to be a write-in candidate in November, so he filed a pro se lawsuit.

The decision was issued only two days after the hearing. Judge Carter said that because the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Hawaii’s ban on write-in votes in 1992 in Burdick v Takushi, therefore the California write-in ban is constitutional. Carter wrote that Hawaii’s general election choices are more restricted than California’s. This is untrue. In California, all congressional and partisan state office races are limited by law to only two candidates. Hawaii general election ballots give voters far more choices. In November 2014, there were nominees of four parties on the Hawaii ballot for Governor, three for U.S. Senate, three for U.S. House in the 2nd district, and up to four candidates in legislative races.

Carter also said that if California permitted write-in candidacies in November, someone who ran in the primary and lost might file as a write-in. This does not follow logically. California is free to permit write-in candidates in November but to refuse to count write-ins for candidates who had run in the primary, and several states follow that policy.

Nielsen Merksamer, the law firm that intervenes in all California election law lawsuits that have any bearing on the top-two primary, has forwarded a copy of the Milonopoulos decision to the California State Court of Appeals that is hearing Rubin v Bowen, the minor party challenge to the California top-two system. Rubin v Bowen will be heard in San Francisco on Thursday morning, January 15. Nielsen Merksamer has informed the three judges that are hearing Rubin v Bowen that they should take the Milonopoulos decision into account when they hear Rubin v Bowen. Nielsen Merksamer represents Californians for an Open Primary, which holds itself out to the public as a group that promotes voting rights. Neilsen Merksamer had intervened in the Milonopoulos lawsuit in support of the ban on write-in votes.