On August 25, the California Senate passed AB 2351 unanimously. This is the bill that eases the definition of “political party”. Now it goes back to the Assembly for concurrence in a minor amendment. Thanks to C. T. Weber for this news.
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According to this story, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in Illinois campaign for the Republican nominee for Governor. Christie criticized Illinois for keeping the Green Party slate of statewide candidates off the ballot. However, he seemed poorly informed about the process.
The Wichita Eagle has this description of the August 25 hearing in Kobach v U.S. Election Assistance Commission, 14-3062. This is the case filed by Kansas and Arizona Secretaries of State over the federal voter registration form.
On August 25, the South Dakota Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit to get its nominee for Public Service Commissioner on the November ballot. Libertarian Party of South Dakota v Gant, 14-cv-4132. The party nominated Ryan Gaddy for that position at its state convention on August 9. South Dakota provides that qualified parties nominate by convention, not primary, for that office and certain other low-level offices.
The Secretary of State rejected Gaddy because he changed his registration to “Libertarian” a few hours before he was nominated. Since he had filled out the new voter registration form on a Saturday, it wasn’t recorded in the county auditor’s office until a few days later. The law says parties can’t nominate non-members. The Secretary of State feels his party change wasn’t in effect when he was nominated. The law is obviously ambiguous on that point. However, the U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut in 1986 that the Constitution’s Freedom of Association clause inside the First Amendment means that parties have a constitutional right to nominate non-members if they wish, so regardless of how the state law is interpreted, the party has constitutional grounds for its position.
The Alaska Division of Elections has determined that the Constitution Party’s nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor each have enough valid signatures on their petitions, and the candidates will appear on the November ballot.
It is odd that in Alaska, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected as a team in the general election, and yet the state forces independent candidates (and the nominees of unqualified parties) to each submit a separate petition, one for Governor and one for Lieutenant Governor.
UPDATE: see this news story.