The Arkansas Green Party, and also the Arkansas Libertarian Party, are both petitioning to get on the 2014 ballot. The Green Party now has 10,700 signatures toward its goal of 16,000. It is believed that the Libertarian Party petition also is approximately two-thirds finished. The state requires 10,000 valid signatures.
The Hawaii Libertarian Party, which is conducting a petition drive entirely with volunteers, now has 650 signatures. The legal requirement is 706 valid signatures.
The U.S. Supreme Court returns from its summer recess on September 30, when it holds a conference to decide whether to hear certain cases. Probably the Court will then announce on October 1 whether it is hearing any particular cases, and on October 7 it will release further orders from the September 30 conference and also start its fall argument schedule.
One of the cases on the September 30 conference is Corsi v Ohio Election Commission, 12-1442. The plaintiff, Edmund Corsi, has a blog about local politics in Geauga County, Ohio. In 2010 the Ohio Election Commission heard a complaint against him, that he had not registered as a PAC. To register as a PAC requires designation of a treasurer and periodic campaign finance reports. The Commission believed Corsi should become a PAC because his web page sometimes commented on whether his readers should vote for or against particular candidates. The Commission also believed Corsi’s activity was not merely the activity of an individual, because he sometimes held meetings in which participants discussed local politics.
The Ohio State Appeals Court agreed with the Ohio Election Commission that Corsi must register as a PAC. The Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear Corsi’s appeal. Now he is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case. Here is his cert petition. Corsi is a conservative who frequently criticizes local Republican office-holders. Here is Corsi’s webpage, Geauga Constitutional Council.
The September 14 New York Times has this article, which suggests that Great Britain’s coalition government (between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democratic Party) has lasted longer, and been more successful, than expected. No party got a majority of the seats in the last House of Commons election, so the government depends on alliance of one of the two major parties, and Britain’s largest third party.
In the United States, one must go all the way back to 1930 to find an election in which neither major party held a majority in the U.S. House. The various minor parties that elected members of the U.S. House in 1930 formed a coalition with the Democratic Party, to elect the House speaker.
This interesting, lengthy Bloomberg article about the Australian Senate results, in the September 7, features the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, who was elected to the Australian Senate from New South Wales. It quotes him as saying he realized he might be able to win, after he discovered that his party had the best position on the ballot.
The Liberal Democrat Party could be considered Australia’s Libertarian Party. It is not associated with the Liberal Party, which is one of Australia’s major parties. Australia uses proportional representation combined with ranked-choice voting for its Senate elections. The smaller parties cooperated to have their voters support each other. Thanks to John Fund for the link.
The city of South Portland, Maine, prohibits any city employee from running for a seat on the School Board, or any city elective office. The city also bans city employees from circulating petitions for any candidate for any city elective office. On September 10, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that these rules are too restrictive. The 5-1 opinion lets the two plaintiffs run for seats on the School Board. One of the plaintiff-candidates is a part-time librarian; the other one only works four hours per week for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Callaghan v City of South Portland, 2013 ME 78.
The city tried to defend its policy by mentioning that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the Hatch Act, which is a federal law banning federal employees from running for partisan elected office. But the Maine Supreme Court pointed out that the Hatch Act does not interfere with federal employees who want to run for non-partisan office. South Portland, and virtually all Maine cities, have non-partisan city elections.
The Maine Supreme Court said that it is appropriate for some types of city employee to be prevented from running for city office, but said the city must re-write its policy so that it isn’t so drastic.
