Maine Libertarian Party Files Paperwork to Begin to Qualify as a “Political Party”

Posted on by December 29, 2014
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The Maine Libertarian Party has become the first group to comply with the 2013 law that says if a group wants to qualify as a political party, it must notify the state in December of an even-numbered year. Such a group then has a year to obtain 5,000 registered members.

It is not clear if individuals who registered “Libertarian” long ago, when the party was ballot-qualified in the past, will count. The Libertarian Party was a qualified party in Maine during 1992, and chances are there are some voters who registered “Libertarian” back then, and who have never re-registered. Chances are, Maine election officials won’t go to the bother of finding such individuals, because they have been coded as independent voters in the computerized records. However, certain other states do “revive” such registrations when parties go off the ballot and then return, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

There were 1,048 registered Libertarians in Maine at the end of 1992.

If any other group also wishes to file this month, the deadline is December 30, not December 31; and the application requires the signatures of at least ten voters who are not registered members of any of the three qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, and Green). It seems likely that if the deadline for filing the notice of intent to qualify were challenged in court, it would be overturned; there seems to be no state interest in specifiying only one particular month for filing such a notice.

Independent Party Will Likely Qualify for the Louisiana Ballot

Posted on by December 28, 2014
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According to this article, it is likely that a ballot-qualified Independent Party will soon come into existence in Louisiana. Louisiana permits groups to become ballot-qualified parties if they have at least 1,000 registered members, and pay a one-time fee of $1,000.

There are approximately 80,000 voters who wrote in “Independent” on the voter registration forms, in the blank that asks the applicant to choose a party. But Louisiana had a law forbidding any party from being named the “Independent Party”. However, the legislature repealed that law in 2014, effective January 1, 2015. Therefore, there is no legal barrier to the formation of the party, assuming someone pays the fee of $1,000. Now that the idea has been publicized, the individuals mentioned in the story probably realize that if they don’t pay the fee and fill out the paperwork, someone else will.

Here is a link to the Louisiana voter registration form. Scroll down. The form lists the qualified parties and gives them each their own check box. Voters who don’t want to be members of any party are supposed to choose “no party” from the form.

Qualified parties in Louisiana can’t have their own presidential primary unless they have registration of 5%. Assuming the Independent Party comes into existence, it would be only about half-way to qualifying for its own presidential primary.

Other states with a ballot-qualified “Independent Party” are Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, and Oregon. Thanks to Randall Hayes for the link to the newspaper story.

D.C. Circuit Will Hear Case on Citizenship for Samoans on February 9, 2015

Posted on by December 28, 2014
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The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. circuit, will hear Tuaua v USA, 13-5272, on February 9, 2015. This is the case over whether persons born in American Samoa are constitutionally entitled to be U.S. citizens, without having to go through the naturalization process. Some of the plaintiffs now live in one of the fifty states, but they are not permitted to vote if they haven’t gone through naturalization. Over the years, Congress by statute has authorized citizenship for the residents of other U.S. overseas possessions, but has never taken that step for American Samoa.

Eni Faleomavaega, the Delegate to the U.S. House from American Samoa when this case was filed, had intervened in the lawsuit in support of the status quo. However, he was defeated for re-election on November 4, 2014. Here is an article about his election defeat. The new Delegate is Aumua Radewagen.