Georgia Elections Advisory Council Hears Complaints About Georgia Ballot Access Laws

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On April 27, the Georgia Secretary of State’s new Elections Advisory Council held a public meeting in the State Capitol in Atlanta, to hear complaints or suggestions from members of the public for improving Georgia election laws. Several Georgians complained about Georgia’s ballot access laws, including Faye Coffield and Ray Boyd (who are both independents), Jack Aiken of the Libertarian Party, and Al Herman, Nan Garret, Adam Shapiro, and John Fortune from the Green Party. Also, Georgia Representative Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, who is not a member of the Council, testified that the ballot access laws are too strict.

Several of the members of the Council then said that they are concerned about the ballot access laws being too harsh. Nineteen members of the public made statements about one issue or another. There were comments for and against electronic vote-counting machines, and in favor of Instant Runoff Voting. UPDATE: here is a newspaper story about the hearing.

U.S. District Court Promises Quick Decision on Whether Maine Must Redistrict This Year

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On April 27, a 3-judge U.S. District Court heard oral arguments in Desena v State of Maine, 1:11-cv-117. The issue is whether the U.S. Constitution requires Maine to redraw its U.S. House district boundaries before the 2012 election. Maine law says redistricting should not occur until 2013. See this story. The judges indicated they will rule by June 2011.

D.C. Special Election for City Council-at-Large

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On April 26, Washington, D.C., held a special election to fill a vacant city council-at-large seat. In D.C. special elections for partisan office, parties are not permitted to nominate candidates. Individuals run against each other and there is no run-off. The race had 9 candidates on the ballot, including six Democrats. With that many Democrats in the race, but only one Republican, the Republican, Patrick Mara, came close to winning. Mara placed second, with 11,096 votes so far. But the winner, former Councilmember Vincent Orange, a Democrat, won the race with 12,216 votes. Here are the full results.

Constitution Party Loses Case over Kansas Voter Registration Forms

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On April 27, U.S. District Court Judge Sam Crow, a semi-retired Reagan appointee, upheld Kansas’ policy of providing no write-in line on voter registration forms, concerning the voter’s choice of political party. Constitution Party of Kansas v Biggs, 10-4043. Here is the 17 page opinion. The Constitution Party is not ballot-qualified in Kansas but has placed nominees on the ballot through the independent candidate procedure.

The 10th circuit had ruled in 1984 that Colorado must provide write-in space on voter registration forms, so that voters could register as members of unqualified parties. Kansas is in the 10th circuit, so Judge Crow should have followed the 1984 decision, which is called Baer v Meyer. But, he said that if Kansas showed a blank line on the voter registration form, the voter filling in the form might have bad handwriting and it would be difficult for election officials to understand what the voter had written. This is not a good argument, because the same thing could be said about the voter’s address on the form, but somehow Kansas officials manage to cope with reading handwriting for addresses and other hand-written entries on the form. Also, Judge Crow said letting voters register into an unqualified party would make extra work for elections officials.

Ironically, the Libertarian Party of Kansas had filed a similar lawsuit in 1987, when it wasn’t a qualified party, and it had won the case. Kansas conceded the case, which was called Merritt v Graves, and started printing a blank line on voter registration forms so that voters could register as members of an unqualified party. But, then, in late 1990, the Libertarian Party successfully petitioned to become a qualified party, so the state then stopped printing the blank line on the voter registration forms. Judge Crow did not mention Merritt v Graves. The Constitution Party will probably appeal.

Hawaii Legislative Conference Committee Working Hard on Instant Runoff Voting Bill

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A bill to provide for Instant Runoff Voting in special elections in Hawaii has passed both houses of the legislature, and it is taking the conference committee at least three meetings to iron out the differences between the House version and the Senate version. The conference committee for HB 638 met on April 26 and again on April 26. Now a third meeting of the conference committee has been set for April 28 at 8:30 p.m.