On March 6, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber chose Matt Donohue for a vacancy in the Circuit Court, 21st district. See this story. Donohue is a registered member of the Pacific Green Party and has been serving in an elected non-partisan office, Corvallis School Board. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the news.
On March 6, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs in Los Angeles County Libertarian Party v Bowen have standing to challenge the residency requirement for petition circulators. The nine-page opinion, by Judge Susan Graber, reverses the U.S. District Court, which had said the plaintiffs do not have standing because the Secretary of State says the residency requirement for circulators is not enforced.
This is the first time a minor party has won a case in the Ninth Circuit, except for instances at which the major parties were also in the lawsuit, since 2003. The opinion does not address the constitutionality of the residency requirement for circulators, and it remands the case back to the U.S. District Court to make a decision on the law’s constitutionality. Because the state has already said it doesn’t enforce the law, it is obvious that either the U.S. District Court will now strike down the law, or else the legislature will repeal the residency requirement and the case will be moot. Senate Bill 213, introduced last month, repeals all petitioner residency requirements.
Ironically, on February 8, 2013, a U.S. District Court in Alaska had ruled that a professional petitioner who wants to circulate in Alaska, but who lives in Wisconsin, lacks standing to challenge Alaska’s ban on out-of-state circulators for initiatives. That case is now in the 9th circuit and is Raymond v Fenumiai, 13-35090.
Most counties in New Jersey use electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper trail. Critics of these voting machines filed a lawsuit in state court in 2004, Gusciora v McGreevey, which is still alive and is now called Gusciora v Christie. On March 5, the Appellate Division heard oral arguments on whether use of the machines threatens the accuracy of vote counts and whether use of the machines violates New Jersey’s Constitution. See this story, which describes the hearing.
The reason the case is so old is that the New Jersey legislature amended the law in 2005 to require a paper trail. However, the legislature subsequently postponed implementation of the paper trail, in 2007, 2008, and in 2009. The state says it can’t afford to alter the machines to provide a paper trail. Thus, the case remains alive. The lead plaintiff is Assemblymember Reed Gusciora, a Democrat from Princeton who is the Deputy Majority Leader of the Assembly. Here is the brief in opposition to the use of the machines.
The New York Daily News and other media are reporting that a substantial portion of contributions to the New York state Independence Party in recent months has been from the Republican Party and Republican State Senators. See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
The New York Working Families Party was a subject of this New York Times story in the March 5 print edition, but the story is sympathetic to the Working Families Party, and the inclusion here of this link does not mean to suggest that the two stories in this post are equivalent.
On March 5, the Oklahoma Senate passed SB 76 by 27-18. It increases candidate filing fees. U.S. House rises from $500 to $1,500; legislature from $200 to $400; U.S. Senate from $750 to $2,000; most state executive statewide offices from $200 to $1,000.
In Oklahoma, under current law, candidates who don’t pay the filing fee must submit a petition of 5% of the voters, a task that would cost far more than any of the filing fees, new or old. The bill doesn’t change this petition in lieu of filing fee. Thanks to Richard Prawdzienski for this news.
