The November 3 Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s daily newspaper, has this editorial, strongly condemning SB 193, the ballot access bill.
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This story explains that former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Jim Wright, who is 90 years old and who no longer has a valid drivers license, is being forced to make multiple trips to government offices in order to satisfy the Texas requirements for government photo-ID. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On October 31, James Hall filed this brief in his ballot access case, Hall v Bennett. Hall is trying to get on the ballot for the December 17, 2013 special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, First District. There will probably be a decision near the end of this week.
The link also includes the very interesting declarations of the candidate, about his efforts to complete the petition; another interesting declaration from the leader of the Alabama Constitution Party; and a third interesting declaration from another candidate in this election who tried to qualify.
The Atlantic has this lengthy essay by Alex Seitz-Wald on why the U.S. Constitution is outmoded. The article mentions that among the several hundred national constitutions that have been written in the last one hundred years, almost none of them copied the U.S. model. The essay also points out that most of the countries that did imitate the U.S. Constitution were in Latin America and during the years they had such constitutions, they suffered from instability. Thanks to How Appealing for the link. Alex Seitz-Wald is a political correspondent for The National Journal.
On November 1, the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office said the Libertarian Party’s petition has enough valid names, so the party is back on the ballot. The Secretary of State is still working on checking the Green Party petition. Arkansas requires 10,000 valid signatures for party status. Libertarians had turned in approximately 16,000 recently; Greens submitted approximately 14,500.
The 2014 election will be the first midterm election year in which the Libertarian Party has been on the ballot in Arkansas. The state requires a vote of 3% for the office at the top of the ticket, every two years, for a party to remain ballot-qualified. In other words, only the vote for President and Governor counts for retention of party status.