On May 9, the Arizona Green Party filed this supplemental brief in Arizona Green Party v Bennett, 2:14cv-375. The issue is the constitutionality of the state’s February petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties. A decision is likely from the U.S. District Court at any time.
On May 10, the Ohio Libertarian Party filed this brief with the full set of judges in the Sixth Circuit, in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 14-3230. It argues that the original 3-judge panel did not analyze the case properly when that panel refused to enjoin the law that kept the statewide Libertarians off the party’s primary ballot.
California Assemblymember Richard Gordon expects the Assembly to vote on AB 2351 on Thursday, May 15. This is the bill to re-define “political party”. It moves the vote test (2% for any statewide office, in a midterm year) from the general election to the primary election. It also eases the alternate registration test for a party to be ballot-qualified, from 1% of the last gubernatorial vote (currently 103,004 registrants) to .33% of the total number of registered voters (currently 58,280 registrants).
The Indianapolis Star has this op-ed, advocating that all political parties, not just smaller ones, nominate by convention instead of primary. The op-ed is by Dan Drexler, state chair of the Indiana Libertarian Party. In Indiana, parties that polled 10% of the last election nominate by primary for most offices, although conventions are used for the lesser statewide executive posts. Parties that polled 2% of the last election nominate by convention for all office.
On May 6, Robert Davis, an elected member of the Highland Park, Michigan, School Board, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. His complaint says that because he is planning to run for re-election in November 2014, and because he must submit a petition to get on the ballot, he is being injured by the Michigan law that won’t let unregistered voters circulate candidate petitions. The case is Davis v Johnson, eastern district, 2:14cv-11818.
The Complaint does not mention Congressman John Conyers, but the press and other observers assume that Davis filed the lawsuit to assist Conyers. If Davis wins his case, that would invalidate the law that threatens to keep Conyers off the Democratic primary ballot. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this information. See this story.
