Arizona Turnout in Special Congressional Election was High

Posted on by June 15, 2012
12

Arizona held a special election on June 12, to fill the vacancy in the U.S. House seat, 8th district. Even though all the provisional ballots still haven’t been counted, turnout is already 47.1% of the number of registered voters, and that will increase as more ballots are counted.

Voters in the 8th district heard a stimulating campaign, in which three parties participated. The Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties appeared on that ballot. The Democratic candidate won with an absolute majority.

The Arizona 47.1% turnout is especially good, when compared to California’s June 5 statewide primary for President and all other partisan office. That system, using the top-two open primary law passed by the voters in 2010, yielded a turnout of approximately 31%. The votes haven’t all been counted yet so the exact turnout figure is not known. Preliminary reports show that California independent voters turned out at a significantly lower rate than the turnout for party members. This is true, even though the California Independent Voters Network spent over $1,000,000 on a mailing to 500,000 registered independent voters, urging them to vote in the June 5 primary.

Attorneys for Arizona ask for More Time to File Brief in Case Over Discriminatory Voter Registration Form

Posted on by June 15, 2012
2

The Libertarian and Green Parties are currently suing Arizona in federal court, over the state’s new voter registration forms, which list only the Democratic and Republican Parties. Voters who wish to register into any other party, qualified or not, must write-in its name on the form in a very small space. The lawsuit is Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 4:11-cv-856, and was filed last year.

The state has obtained an extension of time in which to file its brief. It had been due on June 11, but now is due June 29. The state says it needed an extension because its legal staff is busy adjudicating challenges to the petitions submitted by various candidates.

Update on Georgia Ballot Access Lawsuit

Posted on by June 15, 2012
3

Last month, the Green Party and the Constitution Party filed a lawsuit against Georgia’s signature requirement to get on the ballot for President. The state’s answer was due on June 14, but the state has requested an extension of one week. Plaintiffs agreed not to oppose that request. The state says it will not oppose the motion of the political parties to expedite the case. The case is Green Party of Georgia v Kemp, 1:12-cv-1822.

Georgia requires slightly more than 50,000 signatures for independent or newly-qualifying ballot access for President. The signatures are due in July. No group has qualified to place a presidential candidate on the ballot by either type of petition, in over ten years. The only parties that don’t need to petition for President are the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian Parties. Although Americans Elect collected signatures in Georgia, it didn’t submit them and does not plan to submit them.

Georgia is in the 11th circuit. In 1985, the 11th circuit ruled that states must provide easier ballot access for President than for other office. That conclusion, in a case called Bergland v Harris, was based in the U.S. Supreme Court 1983 decision that also said states must be more lenient for President than for other office. The most difficult petition requirement that the U.S. Supreme Court has ever upheld concerning presidential ballot access was the Texas requirement, which was and continues to be a petition of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. If Georgia had a petition requirement for president of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, the state’s requirement this year would be 25,762 signatures.

Independent Presidential Petition Deadlines Pass in the Two Earliest States

Posted on by June 15, 2012
5

North Carolina and Vermont require independent presidential petitions to be submitted by June 14. These two states have the earliest such deadlines in the nation. Lawsuits are pending in both states, and also a bill is pending in the North Carolina legislature to ease ballot access.

Vermont requires 1,000 signatures. The Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Americans Elect are already qualified parties in Vermont, so they did not need to petition. Groups submitting signatures by the deadline include the Green Party, the Constitution Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation Party, and the Justice Party. Vermont permits candidates who use the independent candidate procedure to choose a party label that appears on the November ballot. Vermont also has two other qualified parties that are not affiliated with any national party, the Progressive Party and the Liberty Union Party. The Progressive Party is not expected to have a presidential candidate. Liberty Union will nominate someone for President; no date has been set for the party’s presidential convention, but Stewart Alexander of the Socialist Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party each have some chance to get the Liberty Union nomination.

Vermont requires petitioning groups to transport petitions collected from voters in each town to that town’s town clerk. Then, the petitioning groups must collect the verified signatures and take them to the Secretary of State. The Justice Party was unable to persuade all the town clerks to verify their petitions in time, so the Justice Party submitted all its signatures to the Secretary of State, including some not yet verified by the town clerks. The Justice Party will ask that the Secretary of State apply leniency. This is the first presidential election in which Vermont’s deadline has been so early; in past presidential elections it was in September, and, before that, in October.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit against Vermont’s June petition deadline is pending in the State Supreme Court. The original schedule required all briefs to be submitted by May 22, but the state asked for, and obtained, two extensions of time to file a brief. It is not clear if the Vermont Supreme Court will hear the case before the election. The case is called Trudell v Markowitz, 2011-311. Here is the state’s brief.

In North Carolina, no independent presidential petitions were submitted. Parties that are already ballot-qualified in North Carolina are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect.