Here is a newspaper story about the oral argument on May 21 in the Michigan case that challenges the law that circulators must be registered voters. Here is another story.
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On May 20, the South Dakota Secretary of State informed the press that Clayton Walker, independent candidate for U.S. Senate, had been removed from the general election ballot because a Democratic Party official had challenged his petition. Apparently in South Dakota, when a candidate’s petition is challenged, he or she is not even notified about the challenge until it is over.
In April, Walker had been told that he was on the ballot. See this story. Walker did not know about the challenge until a newspaper story reported the news.
On May 20, Michigan filed this brief in Moore v Johnson, 2:14cv-11903, one of the two pending federal cases over the state law that says circulators of primary candidate petitions must be registered voters. Michigan argues that because Congressman John Conyers only needed 1,000 signatures, the burden on him and any U.S. House primary candidate is not severe, and therefore no harm is done by the circulator registration requirement.
Michigan then says that the Sixth Circuit precedent Nader v Blackwell, which struck down similar Ohio laws, should not apply, because Ralph Nader needed 5,000 signatures to get on the ballot in Ohio in 2004, which is five times as severe as the Conyers’ petition burden. This is a silly argument. In Ohio, 5,000 signatures is less than one-tenth of 1% of the number of votes cast for president in recent years. But in Conyers’ case, 1,000 signatures is more than one-third of 1% of the votes cast in his 13th district in the last election.
Michigan does not mention the Second Circuit opinion Lerman v Board of Elections in the City of New York, 232 F.3d 135 (2000), which struck down a similar New York law, even though the plaintiff only needed 38 valid signatures. The candidate, Anita Lerman, was running for the Independence Party nomination for city council. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On May 14, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy upheld Michigan’s procedure for newly-qualifying parties to get on the ballot, in a case filed by Socialist Party candidate and activist Matt Erard. The case is Erard v Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, eastern district, 2:12cv-13627. Here is the 24-page opinion.
Erard had complained about the law barring out-of-state residents from working on petitions for a newly-qualifying party, but the opinion construes Michigan’s new law (HB 5152, signed into law on April 3, 2014) to mean that such petitioners can be circulated by out-of-state residents. This conclusion is not completely obvious from the text of the law itself, but of course it is valuable. Erard had complained that even if the new law is read this way, he should still obtain relief because the law gives six months for new parties to complete the petition, but because the deadline this year is July 17, the Socialist Party couldn’t take advantage of the liberalization for the entire six-month petitioning period. The opinion minimizes that point and says the party still has plenty of time.
Erard’s strongest point is that Michigan discriminates against newly-qualifying parties, and in favor of old parties, because old parties only needed 16,083 votes for any statewide candidate to remain on the ballot in the November 2012 election, whereas parties petitioning for 2014 need 32,261 signatures. The U.S. Supreme Court had said in Williams v Rhodes that one reason the Ohio ballot access laws in effect in 1968 were unconstitutional was that old parties needed a 10% vote to remain on, whereas new parties needed 15% to get on. The Michigan decision does not mention that case, Williams v Rhodes. Nor does the Michigan decision mention that in 1972, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Massachusetts invalidated the Massachusetts law that required a vote of one-tenth of 1% for Governor for a party to remain on, but a 3% petition for a new party to get on.
Erard had shown that the Democratic and Republican Parties of Michigan never had to petition, because they have existed before 1939, and before 1939, no party in Michigan ever needed a petition to get on. New parties merely had to hold nominating conventions and apply. The decision says that Erard did not prove this, but he did cite the 1939 law, and the judge appears to have overlooked that part of Erard’s brief.
On page 13, the opinion erroneously says the vote test for a party to remain on is 1% of the last vote for Secretary of State, when actually it is 1% of the winning candidate’s vote for Secretary of State. Erard will ask for reconsideration, based partly on this error in the decision, and on the error in the decision that says Erard did not prove his contention that the two major parties never had to petition.
On May 20, Georgia held primary elections. Bob Barr, the 2008 Libertarian presidential nominee, ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House, 11th district. He placed second, and will be in the July 22 Republican primary run-off. The top vote-getter, Barry Loudermilk, received 36.6%, and Barr got 25.8%. The third highest vote-getter, Tricia Pridemore, got 17.1%. Here is a link to the election returns on the Secretary of State’s web page.