On August 8, U.S. District Court Judge Deborah A. Batts, a Clinton appointee,, granted summary judgment to two groups that represent disabled individuals, in their claim that the New York City Board of Elections is liable for violating federal laws that protect access to the polls for disabled persons. The case is United Spinal Association v Board of Elections in the City of New York, southern district, 10-cv-5653.

The 31-page decision is filled with examples of specific polling places in recent past elections at which wheelchair access was virtually impossible. The Board defended itself by saying it has a policy of re-assigning disabled voters to other nearby polling places, but the Court found that the Board had put the burden on the disabled individual to find appropriate alternative polling places, and that it is the Board that should be responsible for finding such alternate polling places. See this story.

The Socialist Equality Party turned in 3,200 signatures to place its presidential nominee, Jerry White, on the ballot. The state requires 2,000. However, the state disqualified the petition because the state says one presidential elector candidate needs to live in each U.S. House district. However, in 2004, the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ralph Nader, and said there is no need for a residency requirement for presidential elector candidates, other than that they live in Wisconsin. That case was Nader v Dane County Circuit Court. The Socialist Equality Party will bring this to the attention of the election officials.

On August 8, a Leon County, Florida, circuit court rejected a lawsuit that had been filed to keep three State Supreme Court Justices off the retention ballot. In Florida, justices of the Supreme Court must actually file to appear on the ballot, even though they don’t run in candidate elections; instead their names are listed on the ballot and voters vote on whether to retain them.

The lawsuit had been filed by voters who charged that the ballot access applications were flawed. The law requires such applications to be notarized. The justices filed at the last minute, and in their rush, they had their applications notarized by employees of the Supreme Court. A law says court employees can’t work for a candidate on government time. But the court ruled that, whatever the merits of that argument, the plaintiffs lack standing. See this story. It would be a rare lower court judge who would rule that three members of that state’s Supreme Court justices must be removed from the ballot.