Emily Bazelon has this article in Slate. Apparently, the expert evidence in the ongoing Pennsylvania trial on the Pennsylvania law requiring Government Photo-ID to vote at the polls suggests that the law could disenfranchise more Republicans than Democrats. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
Mmoja Ajabu, a candidate for U.S. House in Indiana’s 7th district, is being kept off the November ballot because he turned in photocopies of his petitions instead of the originals. See this story. He plans to sue to overturn that decision.
On July 25, U.S. District Court Judge William Zloch, a Reagan appointee, upheld Florida’s closed primaries. The case is LaCasa v Townsley, 12-22432. Some voters had filed the case, arguing that when the only candidates who qualify to appear on any ballot (primary or general) for a particular race are members of the same party, then that party’s primary, just for that particular race, should be open to all voters.
The decision is 29 pages. The first seventeen pages find that the U.S. Constitution does not require states to let non-members of parties vote in party primaries. The decision notes that the Florida Democratic Party has not said that it wishes to allow all voters to vote in its primaries, even in the circumstances of races in which only Democrats filed to be on the ballot. This part of the decision surveys all the U.S. Supreme Court precedents on who can vote in party primaries, and is more lengthy than might have been expected in a decision that had to be written in a hurry.
The decision finds that the burden on voters is not severe, because if any non-Democratic Party registrant had really wanted to vote in the particular race that prompted this lawsuit (Miami-Dade County State Attorney), he or she could have switched to being a Democrat until July 16. The primary is in August. The last part of the decision discusses the particular Florida state law that says elections like this one should be open if only members of one party are candidates. In this particular election, there are two write-in candidates in November, one of whom is not a Democrat. The decision finds that write-in candidates are candidates, even though the plaintiffs had asserted that they are sham candidates who only filed as write-ins in order to keep the primary from being open to all registered voters.
On July 25, the trial began in the lawsuit in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, over the state’s new law, requiring voters at the polls to show government photo-ID at the polls. See this story. The plaintiffs are basing their case on the state constitution.
In February 2012, the Socialist Equality Party had announced its presidential and vice-presidential nominees, but had not said the ticket expected to qualify for the ballot in any state. In 2008 the Socialist Equality Party has also announced a ticket, but that ticket did not qualify for the ballot in any state.
However, this year, the party is petitioning to place its national ticket on the Wisconsin ballot. The nominees are Jerry White, 52, for President; and Phyllis Scherrer, 48, for Vice-President.
Assuming the White-Scherrer gets on the ballot in Wisconsin, and possibly other states, that will make at least four parties in 2012 with “Socialist” or “Socialism” in their name, which will have a presidential nominee on a ballot. The other such tickets in 2012 are those of the Socialist Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Socialist Workers Party. There is also a 2012 ticket for the Freedom Socialist Party, but that ticket is not expected to be on the ballot anywhere, unless possibly the Peace & Freedom Party nominates that ticket.
