Massachusetts Green Party Expects to Regain Qualified Status This Year

Posted on by March 9, 2014
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Massachusetts currently has no ballot-qualified parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. Massachusetts requires parties to poll 3% for any statewide race, every two years.

The Green Party will run nominees this year for Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Auditor, and is highly likely to poll 3% for at least one of these races, if not all three. See this story. Those offices only require 5,000 signatures.

Having qualified party status in a presidential year is valuable, because in 2009 the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that stand-ins are not permitted on minor party and independent candidate petitions. Therefore, if a minor party doesn’t have qualified status in a presidential year, it can’t start to petition until it has chosen its presidential and vice-presidential nominees, and the petition, which requires 10,000 signatures, is due on August 2, 2016. Obviously, if a party has qualified status, it need not petition for president and can tell the state as late as September who its presidential and vice-presidential nominees are.

Massachusetts also has a procedure for an unqualified party to become ballot-qualified in advance of any particular election, but it is so difficult, it has never been used. It has existed since 1990 and requires the group to obtain registration membership of 1% of the state total.

Ohio Libertarian Party Files Strong New Legal Argument in Existing Federal Ballot Access Concerning Primary Ballot Access for its Statewide Nominees

Posted on by March 8, 2014
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On the evening of March 6, the Ohio Libertarian Party filed this strong motion for a preliminary injunction, to prevent the state from printing Libertarian primary ballots without the gubernatorial and attorney general candidates’ names. The party didn’t need to file a new lawsuit; it is relying on the fact that its original 2013 federal case is still open. That case is Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, southern district, 2:13cv-953.

The brief mentions previous Ohio Secretary of State rulings, and opinions of Ohio state courts, that just because a circulator doesn’t identify his or her employer is not reason to invalidate the petitions. Even past Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican who invalidated the Libertarian Party’s 2004 petition because the wording on the petition didn’t match the statutory language, had ruled, “Do not invalidate a part-petition if the employer information…is blank or incomplete.” The brief also makes a case that it is unconstitutional in any event to force circulators to identify their employers, or to treat paid circulators differently than volunteer circulators.

Tentative California List of Candidates for State Office Shows Very Few Minor Party and Independent Candidates for Legislature

Posted on by March 7, 2014
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The California Secretary of State has a tentative list of candidates for state office at this web page. It lists everyone who has filed to be on the June 2014 primary ballot. However, because every candidate needs at least either 40 or 65 valid signatures (depending on type of office), not all candidates on this list are necessarily on the ballot, because not all petitions have been checked yet. Also, for races with no incumbent running, the filing deadline is on March 12, so a few names may yet be added for certain races.

The list shows no independent or minor party candidates for State Senate, except for Green Party member Jack Lindblad. For Assembly, there are four candidates who are not registered members of any qualified party, and one minor party candidate, Pamela Elizondo of the Green Party. One of the no-party candidates for the legislature is Emidio (Mimi) Soltysik. He is registered “Socialist”, but he will not have that label on the ballot because California law does not permit the names of unqualified parties to be on the ballot.

For the statewide offices, there are many independent candidates for Governor, but no independent candidates for any other office, except for Orly Taitz for Attorney General, and Dan Schnur for Secretary of State. Minor party candidates for statewide office are: Libertarian, Jonathan Jaech for Attorney General; Green, Luis R. Rodriguez for Governor, Jena Goodman for Lieutenant Governor, David S. Curtis for Secretary of State, Ellen Brown for Treasurer, Laura Wells for Controller; Peace & Freedom, Cindy Sheehan for Governor and Nathalie Hrizi for Insurance Commissioner; Americans Elect, Alan Reynolds for Lieutenant Governor; American Independent, Robert Ornelas for Governor.

There are eight independent candidates for Governor.

Seven New Jersey Voters File Federal Lawsuit to Stop Taxpayer-Funded Partisan Primaries

Posted on by March 7, 2014
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On March 5, seven New Jersey voters filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing that the New Jersey Constitution is violated when taxpayers pay for partisan primaries. Four of the voters are independents, one is a Democrat, and two are Republicans. The case is Balsam v Guadagno, 2:14cv-01388. It was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler, a Bush Jr. appointee. Here is the Complaint.

New Jersey lets independents vote in partisan primaries, but on primary day, if they ask for a major party primary ballot, they are then listed as major party members, and they must fill out a new voter registration form to regain their independent status. The plaintiffs who are registered Republican and Democrats say they only registered into the major parties so as to be able to vote in primaries, but they would rather not be members of those parties.

Ohio Secretary of State Removes Libertarian Party Statewide Candidates from the Libertarian Primary Ballot

Posted on by March 7, 2014
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On March 7, at the end of the business day, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted revealed that he has removed the Libertarian Party statewide candidates from the party’s primary ballot, including the gubernatorial candidate, Charlie Earl.

Apparently the basis was that the paid petitioner who collected the signatures didn’t fill out the part of the circulator form identifying his employer.

Although Ohio permits write-in votes in primaries, the deadline for anyone to file as a declared write-in candidate for the May 4 primary was 72 days before that primary, or February 23, so it is too late for the Libertarians to find anyone else to run for Governor in their primary. The deadline had been 60 days until 2010, when it was moved to 72 days.

With no gubernatorial candidate on the November ballot, the party will lose its status as a qualified party. The law requires a vote of 2% for the party to remain on the ballot. The party plans to challenge the March 7 ruling in federal court on due process grounds. UPDATE: see this story, which provides more details.