Ballot Access News

On January 31, Peace & Freedom Party candidate Daniel Frederick filed a lawsuit in state court in Sacramento, contesting the interpretation and constitutionality of the California Secretary of State’s rules for candidates who choose to file a petition in lieu of a filing fee, rather than paying the filing fee. The lawsuit especially contests the rules for special elections, which frequently give candidates only one or two days after the Governor has called the special election to complete these petitions. Furthermore, that problem (which is an old problem in California, for special elections) is compounded by the severe increase in the number of signatures in lieu of filing fee, caused by the Secretary of State’s interpretation of Proposition 14 and its implementing legislation.

In the past, candidates who are members of small qualified parties needed 150 signatures in lieu of a filing fee for any partisan office, but now they need 1,500 to run for Assembly. The case is Frederick v Bowen, 34-2011-80000773-cu-wm-gds. It will be heard by Judge Kinney in Sacramento Superior Court. Frederick wishes to run for the Assembly in the 4th district. A special election is being held there because the seat is vacant. It is vacant because Assemblymember Ted Gaines, who won that seat in November 2010, recently resigned because earlier this year he won a special election to the State Senate in the First District. That seat, in turn, had been vacant because State Senator Dave Cox had died on July 13, 2010, in the middle of his term.

The pending federal lawsuit against New York state’s discriminatory policy on fusion is beginning to move ahead. The case is Credico v New York State Board of Elections, in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, cv10-4555. In 2010, Randy Credico was the U.S. Senate nominee of both the Libertarian Party, and the Anti-Prohibition Party. New York state refused to list him twice on the ballot, even though New York state listed many other candidates of the nominees of two, or three, or sometimes even four, parties. New York won’t list someone twice if he or she is the nominee of two unqualified parties.

On January 28, the state answered the complaint. The briefing should be complete by the end of March. The case had not moved in three months because the state had asked for, and received, more time to file its answer.

This New York Times story explains that the Conservative Party nominee for State Senate, 31st district, in 2010, was deceased before the party nominated him. Dr. Raphael M. Klapper, of the Bronx, died in May 2010. But during June and July, a petition was circulated to qualify him for the Conservative Party primary. He was dutifully nominated without opposition, and his name appeared on the November 2010 ballot. An investigation is underway to determine how this happened. Most of the district is in Manhattan.

The Conservative Party nominated 55 candidates for the 62 New York State Senate seats last year. They included 47 candidates who were also Republican nominees, one candidate who was also the Democratic nominee, and 7 candidates who weren’t the nominee of any other party. Dr. Klapper was one of the party’s nominees who wasn’t also a major party nominee. In the general election he received 1.62% of the vote. By contrast, in 2008, when the Conservative Party also ran someone in this district who wasn’t a major party nominee, the Conservative nominee only received .74%. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.