New York Primary Petition Challenged on Grounds that Circulator Doesn’t Live in New York State

Congressman Dan Maffei of upstate New York, a Democrat, is also seeking the Working Families Party nomination, so he filed a petition to be on the Working Families Party primary ballot. That petition has been challenged on the grounds that the circulator, Kane Miller, is not truly a New York state resident. See this story. Miller is registered to vote in New York state and is enrolled in the Working Families Party, but the challenger will attempt to show that he is really domiciled in Georgia.

Although the challenge probably won’t reach the constitutional issue of New York’s ban on out-of-state circulators, it might. Bans on out-of-state circulators have been invalidated by courts in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Also, California, Michigan, and D.C. repealed their bans after they were sued. Both Arizona and Virginia tried to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeals on that issue, but the U.S. Supreme Court turned down both states.

Ohio Libertarian Party Ballot Access Case to be Argued in Sixth Circuit on Tuesday, April 22

The Sixth Circuit will hear Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 14-3230, on Tuesday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m., in Cincinnati. This is the case over whether the Libertarian candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor should be on the party’s primary ballot. The court has reserved 30 minutes for this case.

Montgomery Newspaper Again Criticizes Legislature for Failing to Pass Ballot Access Reform

The April 17 Montgomery Advertiser has this editorial, criticizing the legislature for again failing to pass any ballot access reform. Alabama will probably be one of only three states with no statewide minor party or independent candidates on the ballot in November. The others are likely to be California (due to the top-two system) and New Mexico (due to the requirement that even a qualified minor party must submit a substantial petition for all of its non-presidential nominees).

Fortunately, there are two strong ballot access cases pending against Alabama ballot access laws for minor parties and independent candidates, Stein v Bennett, and Hall v Bennett.

District of Columbia Republican Party Threatens to Sue Any Democrats who run as Independents This Year

The District of Columbia election law provides a mechanism that prevents one party from winning all the seats on the Washington, D.C., city council. Each election, there are two open at-large seats on the city council, but no party can run more than a single nominee. Therefore, by default, the Democratic Party can’t win all the seats, and there is always an opportunity for an independent or a nominee of some other party to win one seat each election year.

However, the intent of the law is evaded when Democrats change their affiliation to “independent.” Several sitting Democrats on the City Council say they are thinking of switching to independent status to run for the at-large seat. Although party primaries are over (they were held April 1, earlier than the primaries of any states other than Illinois and Texas), independent candidate petitions are not due until August 6. According to this story, the Republican Party is threatening to sue anyone who is now a Democrat, who switched to independent status and files for one of the at-large seats later this year.

Florida Gubernatorial Poll

On April 17, Public Policy Polling released a gubernatorial poll for Florida. It shows Democrat Charlie Crist at 46%, Republican incumbent Rick Scott at 41%, “other” 7%, undecided 6%. The only announced minor party candidate expected to be on the November ballot is Libertarian Adrian Wyllie, although there will be independent candidates as well.

Here is a link to the poll
. It shows that 9% of Republicans, but only 3% of Democrats, favor “other.” Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.