On August 15, a Pennsylvania lower state court refused to enjoin the use of Pennsylvania’s new law that requires voters at the polls to show government photo-ID. Here is commentary about the decision from Rick Hasen, which includes a link to the 70-page decision. That decision is Applewhite v Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 330 MD 2012.
According to this story, the Arkansas AFL-CIO has endorsed Rebekah Kennedy for U.S. House, in the Arkansas Third District.
In May 2012, the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the unique Pennsylvania ballot access system violates the U.S. Constitution because it requires minor parties and independent candidates to risk paying court costs of over $100,000 if their statewide petitions are found invalid. Recently, the same Republican Party activists who challenged the statewide Libertarian and Constitution Parties sought to intervene in the federal lawsuit.
Here is the brief filed by the proposed intervenors. The brief does not grapple with the core issue in the lawsuit. Instead it defers to the state’s brief. Here is the state’s brief, which is mostly concerned with standing and ripeness. The state brief does attempt to deal with the main issue in the case, but it does so from the viewpoint that the existing system (in which only courts determine if a signature is valid) is to be taken as a “given.” The state’s brief misses the whole point, which is that Pennsylvania does not have a state interest in leaving the petition-checking process entirely to courts and judges. The state, and the intervenors, do not seem to notice that no other state forces state courts to be the first and only government agencies to examine petitions.
Both sides in Republican Party of Connecticut v Merrill have agreed that a higher state court should hear the case. Therefore, the Superior Court (the trial court) will not be involved in the case any longer. The issue is which party should be listed first on the general election ballot, the Republican Party or the Democratic Party.
The law says the parties should be on the ballot in order of their gubernatorial vote totals in the last gubernatorial election. The Secretary of State put the Democratic Party first, even though the Republican Party got more votes on its line for Governor in 2010. The Secretary of State added the Working Families Party gubernatorial vote onto the Democratic Party vote to justify her decision. She is a Democrat.
Peta Lindsay and the Peace & Freedom Party recently filed this brief in Peace & Freedom Party v Bowen, the case pending in U.S. District Court over whether the Secretary of State had the authority to barr Lindsay from the party’s presidential primary ballot. Because the primary is over and Lindsay is not running in California in the November election, the case will proceed after the election is over. A hearing is set for late September.
