On November 25, three Louisiana voters filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that the boundaries of some of the U.S. House districts constitute a “racial gerrymander”, especially the boundaries of the 2nd district, which is the only Louisiana district represented by a Democrat. The case is Buckley v Schedler, middle district, 3:13cv-763. The attorney for the voters is a former state chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party. See this story, which has a map of the districts.
The Alaska Dispatch is Alaska’s leading online-only news site. On December 8 it carried this article by Bill Walker, who is running for Governor in 2014 as an independent candidate. He is a former Mayor of Valdez, an expert in legal issues involving oil and gas, and had run for Governor in 2010 in the Republican primary, where he polled 33%, placing second in a six-candidate field. Walker’s campaign web page is www.billwalkerforgovernor.com.
Bill Bozarth will run for the Georgia House of Representatives in 2014 as an independent candidate. See this story. He was an IBM business executive leader until 1995, and since then has held other jobs in the IT industry. He was Executive Director of Georgia Common Cause 2002-2010. He is a member of the Atlanta Citizens Review Board and has lived in Atlanta since 1988.
The story has links to Bozarth’s campaign web page.
According to this story, Andre Bauer may be an independent candidate for Governor of South Carolina in 2014. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina as a Republican in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. The Governor who was elected in 2002 and 2006 was Mark Sanford. In South Carolina, Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected separately.
South Carolina has never had an independent candidate for Governor on a government-printed ballot. South Carolina has only had government-printed ballots since 1950. Before 1950, ballots were privately prepared. South Carolina has a straight-ticket device, so if Bauer does run as an independent, he will be injured by the device. Independent candidates don’t have a straight-ticket device. Voters who use the straight-ticket device might vote without even seeing Bauer’s name on the ballot.
Conceivably Bauer could run as a minor party candidate. Americans Elect is still ballot-qualified in South Carolina, as is the Independence Party. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On December 9, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales ruled that New Mexico’s April petition deadline for parties to submit petitions is unconstitutionally early. The case was filed by the Constitution Party in 2012, and is Constitution Party of New Mexico v Duran, 1:12cv-325. Here is the 18-page decision.
The decision notes that before 1995, the petition deadline was in July, and the state didn’t have any evidence or argument to show that the July deadline caused any election-administration problems.
This is a rare case in which a ballot access lawsuit was won, even though the plaintiff succeeded in getting on the ballot in the same year in which it filed the lawsuit. The Constitution Party succeeded in meeting the April 2012 deadline. However, it presented evidence that because the deadline was so early, it was forced to spend $15,000 on paid circulators, and that if the deadline had been later in the year, it could have avoided this expense by relying on volunteers, who typically take much longer to get the job done.
The decision discusses the U.S. District Court decisions earlier this year from Alabama (upholding a March petition deadline) and North Carolina (upholding May) but differentiates them.
