On May 6, the California Assembly Elections Committee passed two bills that ease ballot access restrictions. Both bills passed unanimously. AB 2351 makes it easier for parties to remain ballot-qualified. AB 2233 reduces the number of signatures in lieu of the filing fee in special elections, on the grounds that the petitioning period is so much shorter in special elections than in regular elections.
The May 6 Sacramento Bee has this op-ed by Mike Feinstein, former Mayor of Santa Monica, on how California’s top-two system has injured the state’s minor parties.
On April 24, some students at the University of Hawaii at Hilo filed a federal lawsuit, over the restrictions on passing out literature on campus. The University is a public school. The case is Burch v University of Hawaii System, 1:14cv-200.
The campus has a “free speech zone” that occupies only one-fourth of 1% of the total land area of the campus, and which has very little pedestrian traffic. The campus also allows some First Amendment activity at the Campus Center Plaza and the Library Lanai, but before those areas can be used, students must apply for permission seven working days (which is more than a week) in advance, and sometimes the administration takes weeks to respond to the request. Here is a copy of the 32-page complaint. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the link.
On May 5, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to give injunctive relief to the Ohio Libertarian Party, in the ballot access lawsuit involving the party’s primary ballot and its statewide candidates. Justice Clarence Thomas had received the request on May 2, and he did refer the matter to the other justices, but no relief was forthcoming.
The party had also asked Justice Elena Kagan for relief earlier on May 2, but she denied relief without forwarding the matter to any other justice. The issue is the law that requires petitioners to show on each petition blank who the employer of the circulator is. The party’s statewide primary petitions had been accepted by the Secretary of State even though they didn’t have that information. But when someone challenged the petitions, the challenge succeeded.
This May 4 Houston Chronicle story about the Texas Democratic run-off primary for U.S. Senate says that the LaRouche organization’s candidate, Kesha Rogers, has raised $53,366 in donations, whereas the party-endorsed candidate, David Alameel, has only raised $23,794 in donations (except for donations from himself).
