Ballot Access News

On July 20, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico sued New Mexico Secretary of State Diana Duran in state court. The issue is that the Secretary of State has told the press that she has found evidence that thousands of non-citizens have voted in recent New Mexico elections, but that she refuses to release this evidence. The lawsuit is based on state laws on public access to state government information. The case is ACLU of New Mexico v Duran, state district court, 2nd district, cv 2011-07257. Here is the complaint.

Irregular Times has made available the Americans Elect Bylaws, which can be read here. The Bylaws are interesting for several reasons. The founders of Americans Elect have made provision for the possibility that the Americans Elect presidential nominee will receive some electoral votes, and furthermore that no presidential candidate may end up with a majority of the electoral votes. The Bylaws are careful to say that the presidential electors of American Elect will be formally unpledged, leaving them free to bargain over whom to give their electoral votes to, in case there are some Americans Elect electors and in case no presidential candidate receives a majority of the electoral vote.

The Bylaws are also interesting because they seem to place the power to nominate candidates in the hands of the Candidate Certification Committee. The bylaws say, “All qualified persons, regardless of their membership in any political party, shall be eligible to seek or accept the nomination of Americans Elect.” But they also say, “The Candidate Certification Committee shall be responsible for certifying that candidates and draftees be eligible (referring to Constitutional qualifications to hold the office), as well as to develop criteria of demonstrated achievements based on qualifications of past Presidents and Vice-Presidents to ensure that only persons capable of performing the duties of President and Vice-President are eligible for voting by the registered delegates.”

This seems to suggest that no one may seek the nomination of Americans Elect for President or Vice-President unless that person has either previously won elective office to a high position, or been a cabinet member, or been a very important general. No one has ever been elected President who did not meet one of those conditions. The bylaws say the decision of the Candidate Certification Committee can be overridden with a two-thirds vote of all delegates, but it would be virtually impossible for two-thirds of all the delegates to do anything together. There will be a large number of delegates who will probably remain passive and will not participate. Anyone U.S. adult citizen may sign up to be a delegate. Access to the contact list for the delegates will, of course, be a key asset.

The July 20 Sacramento Bee has this editorial, asking California Governor Jerry Brown to veto SB 168. That is the bill that makes it illegal for initiative, referendum and recall petition circulators to be paid on a per-signature basis. This is a very significant editorial. The Sacramento Bee almost always endorses Democrats, not Republicans, for public office. The bill passed with unanimous opposition from Republican legislators, but only three Democratic Assemblymembers failed to vote for the bill.

The Bee editorial says what everyone knows, that the motive behind the bill is not to prevent fraud, but to make it more difficult to put initiatives on the ballot.