Alabama Secretary of State Rejects Another Special Election Petition

Posted on by December 20, 2013
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Alabama has rejected the Constitution Party’s ballot access petition for the special election, State House, 31st district. See this story in the Birmingham News. Because the Republican Party is the only party that qualified a candidate for this election (no independent ran, no Democrat ran, and the Constitution Party failed to get on the ballot) the special election is now cancelled and the Republican nominee is deemed elected.

The Constitution Party expected to get a report of its petition validity before the deadline, but reversing past practice, in this case the Secretary of State refused to check any signatures until the deadline had passed.

New Mexico Supreme Court Won’t Hear Constitution Party Case on Whether it is Still a Ballot-Qualified Party

Posted on by December 20, 2013
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The New Mexico Supreme Court has declined to hear Constitution Party of New Mexico v Duran, 34431. Any Supreme Court is always free to decline to hear a case filed directly with that court. The decision not to hear the case is not a decision on the merits, and the case can be re-filed in a lower state court.

The issue is whether the Secretary of State of New Mexico was correct to remove the Constitution Party from the ballot. The New Mexico Supreme Court never ever learned that the Secretary of State’s brief, asking the Court not to take the case, has important factual errors. The state’s brief told the court that in the past, parties were always removed after just one election if they didn’t meet the vote test. This is not true. Furthermore, the state’s brief did not even quote the complete sentence in section 1-7-2 that describes when a party must be removed from the ballot. The state’s brief did not include the first half of the sentence, which starts out “If two successive general elections are held…”

The New Mexico Green Party is in the same situation as the Constitution Party. Both parties successfully petitioned in 2012, expecting they would get the next two elections, but so far they are both off the ballot for 2014.

California Libertarian Party Gains an Office-Holder

Posted on by December 20, 2013
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Jeff Hewitt, who was elected to the Calimesa, California, city council in 2010, has let it be known that he has changed his voter registration to show him as a Libertarian. All city and county elections in California are non-partisan. Hewitt’s term runs out in 2014.

Calimesa has about 8,000 population, and is in northwest Riverside County, in southern California.

California Initiative for Neighborhood Legislature Enters Circulation

Posted on by December 19, 2013
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On December 19, the California Secretary of State announced that the Neighborhood Legislature initiative may begin to collect signatures, to qualify for the 2014 ballot. The proposal would amend the California Constitution. Currently California has 40 State Senators and 80 Assemblymembers. The initiative would provide for 8,000 Assembly districts and 4,000 State Senate districts. Each Assembly district would have approximately 5,000 voters. Each district would elect a state legislator, but then the 100 state legislators within that district would elect one person to send to Sacramento. See www.neighborhoodlegislature.com for more details.

The measure is sponsored by John Cox, who has been active in the Republican Party in the past. He is believed to have the financial resources necessary to get the measure on the ballot.