On November 19, a New Jersey state appeals court revived the lawsuit Rutgers University Student Assembly v Middlesex County Board of Elections. The case was filed in 2011 to overturn the New Jersey law that requires voter registration applications to be filed no later than 21 days before an election. See this story. The trial court had dismissed the case, but the appeals court remanded it and said the case is strong enough so that there should be a trial.
The Nevada Green Party filed a lawsuit earlier this year, alleging that the April petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties is too early. Recently, the party and the state agreed to postpone proceedings in the case until June 2015. Both sides hope the 2015 legislature will ease the deadline.
Most Alaska votes have now been counted. In this month’s election, Pam Goode, Constitution Party nominee for State House, district 9, polled 26.74% of the vote. She lost to Republican nominee Jim Colver, who got 58.16%. But she easily did better than the Democratic nominee, Mabel Wimmer, who only got 14.40%. Here is a link to the Alaska Division of Elections web page, showing election results.
District nine includes Glennallen, Delta Junction, and Palmer, communities north of Anchorage but south of Fairbanks.
Among the most irrational ballot access laws are the laws of Arizona, Florida, Maryland, New Mexico, and Texas, which require independent presidential candidates to submit far more signatures than those states require for newly-qualifying parties.
The consistent excuse for severe ballot access laws is that without them, the ballot would be too crowded. But when a state requires far more signatures for a single independent candidate, who will only occupy one line on a ballot, than for a entire new party (which could put a nominee on the ballot for all the partisan offices, thus impacting the ballot much more), the law isn’t even rational.
Florida does not require a newly-qualifying party to submit any signatures at all, but for 2016 it requires an independent presidential candidate to submit 119,316 signatures. Only independent presidential candidates have a mandatory petition in Florida; independent candidates for other office need no petition. No one has yet challenged Florida’s discriminatory ballot access for independent presidential candidates. Instead, independent presidential candidates have simply formed a party to avoid the problem. For instance, Ralph Nader in 2008 helped create the Ecology Party, a party that only existed in Florida. That party then nominated Nader for president.
Arizona for 2016 requires 20,049 valid signatures for a newly-qualifying party, but will require approximately 36,000 or more signatures for an independent candidate for president and any other statewide office. The exact requirement can’t be known until early 2016, but is 3% of the number of registered voters who are not registered in a qualified political party. No independent candidate has ever sued Arizona over this law.
Maryland for 2016 requires a newly-qualifying party to submit 10,000 signatures, but an independent presidential candidate, and any other statewide independent, needs approximately 38,000 signatures. The exact requirement won’t be known until early in 2016, but will be 1% of the number of registered voters.
Texas in 2016 requires a newly-qualifying party to submit 47,086 signatures, but a presidential independent needs 79,939 signatures.
Several organizations exist to promote to interests of independent voters and, to some extent, the interests of independent candidates. Some of these organizations have substantial networks of supporters and considerable financial resources. Anyone who reads this blog post, and who is associated with such organizations, should consider either (1) bringing these unconstitutional laws to the attention of state legislators; (2) finding independent candidate-plaintiffs who want to run in 2016 who will bring lawsuits. Already, a potential independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland is considering bring a lawsuit, although an attorney must still be found.
According to this story, a New York State Board of Elections Commissioner criticized Nassau County elections officials for allowing poll workers in some precincts to see voted ballots before they had been cast. Thanks to Konstantin Doren for the link.
