Tucson’s daily newspaper has this story about yesterday’s decision by a U.S. District Court Judge, approving Arizona’s voter registration form. The form only gives checkboxes to the Democratic and Republican Parties, even though the Americans Elect, Green, and Libertarian Parties are also ballot-qualified and also have their own primaries.
On March 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th circuit, heard arguments in Libertarian Party of Virginia v State Board of Elections. Here is a news story about the hearing. The issue is Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators. The U.S. District Court had struck it down last year, and the state then appealed.
The three judges on the 4th circuit panel are Robert B. King (a Clinton appointee), and Albert Diaz and Henry F. Floyd (Obama appointees). All three judges actively participated in the questioning. It is difficult to predict how they will rule. UPDATE: anyone can hear the argument at this link provided by the 4th circuit web page.
On March 20, a U.S. District Court refused to reconsider its decision of July 17, 2012 in Green Party of Georgia v State of Georgia, northern district, 1:12cv-1822. The case had been filed by the Green Party and the Constitution Party, and it alleged that Georgia’s petition requirement for presidential candidates to get on the November ballot is too strict.
The reconsideration order is 14 pages, and is longer and more carefully written than the original decision, which had only been four pages. The main point of the reconsideration request had been that the judge had not taken into consideration the point, endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Eleventh Circuit (Georgia is in the Eleventh Circuit), that states must go easier on presidential ballot access than on access for other office. The reconsideration order says that the Eleventh Circuit case on this point, Bergland v Harris, cannot be considered in this current lawsuit because the original brief had not mentioned it. The reconsideration order admits that the original brief did discuss Anderson v Celebrezze, but the reconsideration order simply won’t discuss the part of Anderson v Celebrezze that says that, and instead quotes a different part of Anderson v Celebrezze which is just general boiler plate acknowledging that states can have ballot access requirements. It is likely the case will be appealed.
On March 18, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signed SB 690, which lowers the number of signatures for all presidential candidates (both presidential primary and general election) from 10,000 signatures to 5,000 signatures.
Indiana now has the most difficult mandatory presidential primary petition requirement in the nation. Indiana requires 4,500 signatures, with 500 signatures from each of the nine U.S. House districts. Although 4,500 is a lower number than 5,000, the Indiana requirement, as a percentage of the number of votes in the state, is higher than the equivalent percentage in Virginia. Also the Indiana distribution requirement is far more difficult than the Virginia distribution requirement. The Virginia distribution requirement is now 200 signatures from each of the eleven U.S. House districts.
Very soon, a bill will be introduced in the North Carolina legislature to lower the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties and independent candidates. The fact that Virginia now requires only 5,000 signatures for presidential candidates in the general election will be useful, as North Carolina legislators consider whether they should relax the requirement of 89,430 signatures to approximately 11,000 signatures.
CATO Institute is the leading think-tank for libertarians, but its leadership strongly supports the Republican Party. Here is an opinion piece on the electoral college by Robert Levy, chair of the CATO Board of Directors. Levy seems to say he is strongly opposed to any electoral college system that would give minor party or independent presidential candidates any electoral votes. He says Ross Perot in 1992 might have won some electoral votes if each U.S. House district chose its own presidential elector, and that this would have been undesirable. Levy is also opposed to the National Popular Vote Plan, so he is stuck with preferring the status quo. Thanks to Jon Roland for the link.
