On August 20, a mid-level state court in New York agreed with the trial court that Zephyr Teachout should remain on the New York Democratic primary ballot. See this story. The issue was whether she has been a New York resident for the past five years. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the link.
Philip Bump has this list of instances when one major party, or its adherents, tried to determine the nominee of the other major party, via advertising. The examples cover the last twelve years, and are mostly gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. Bump also includes one U.S. House race, and one presidential race, the Democratic contest in 2004. There are many other recent examples involving state legislative races and U.S. House races, especially in California and Washington. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On August 20, the Alabama ballot access lawsuit Hall v Bennett was transferred from U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller to Judge Myron Thompson. This is the case on whether states must reduce the number of signatures, or extend the deadline, for independent candidates in special elections. The basis for arguing that the Constitution requires such an action is rooted in due process, because in special elections, the amount of time to collect signatures is invariably far shorter.
Alabama is in the Eleventh Circuit, which ruled in 1982 that Georgia must either extend the deadline, or reduce the number of signatures, in a legislative election in which the Citizens Party was trying to get on the ballot. The normal petitioning time was reduced in that case, not because the election was a special election, but because the district boundaries had been drawn so late in the season that the normal 6-month petitioning period was not available.
Despite the 1982 Eleventh Circuit precedent, last year Judge Fuller refused to give injunctive relief to James Hall, an independent candidate for U.S. House in Alabama’s First District. Hall had made a good attempt, but because the petitioning period was only two or three months (the calculation is ambiguous), instead of the normal unlimited time period for collecting signatures, he was only able to collect about half the needed signatures. Approximately 6,000 valid signatures were required.
The case is still pending because Judge Fuller had not yet ruled on the constitutionality of refusing to reduce the requirements when the time period is shortened. Now that the case has been assigned to Judge Thompson, the chances for a victory seem enhanced. In 2002, in Campbell v Bennett, 212 F.Supp.2d 1339 (M.D.Ala.), Judge Thompson ruled that it violates due process for the state to increase the petition requirement from 1% to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote only a few weeks before the petition was due.
The Hall case was transferred away from Judge Fuller because all of his cases have been transferred to other judges, because last week he was arrested on a charge of physically injuring his wife.
Alaska held primaries on August 19. For U.S. Senate, three Libertarians appeared on the ballot, and two members of the Alaskan Independence Party appeared on the ballot. Here is a link to the unofficial returns.
The vote for the three Libertarians was: Thom M. Walker 2,588; Mark S. Fish 1,038; Scott Kohlhaas 560. Therefore, Walker is the party’s nominee.
The vote for the two Alaskan Independence members was: Vic Kohring 2,090; Zachary Kile 1,483. Kohring is now the AIP nominee.
Alaska holds a blanket primary for all qualified parties except the Republican Party. The Republican Party has its own separate semi-closed primary. Only Republicans and independents may choose the Republican primary ballot. All voters are free to choose the ballot used by the other parties.
On August 19, Wyoming held primaries for the Democratic and Republican Parties. Richard Grayson, the only name on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House, was nominated with 14,207 votes. Only 190 write-ins were cast for that office in the Democratic primary. Here are the unofficial results.
Richard Grayson has residences in Arizona and New York. He was a Green Party nominee for U.S. House from Arizona in 2010, and he was an Americans Elect nominee for U.S. House from Arizona in 2012. Wyoming is in the Tenth Circuit. The Tenth Circuit ruled in 2000 that states cannot require candidates for Congress to live in that state on filing day, because the U.S. Constitution says that candidates for Congress need not be residents of the state they are seeking to represent until election day itself.
