Candidate for District of Columbia Attorney Refiles Lawsuit Over Whether Election Should be Held

Posted on by December 3, 2013
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Paul Zukerberg, a candidate for Attorney General of the District of Columbia, has re-filed his lawsuit to force the District to hold an election for that post. He originally filed in the District’s own court system, but the D.C. government moved the case to U.S. District Court. The U.S. District Court ruled against Zukerberg on a technicality. Zukerberg has now re-filed, and is back in the D.C. court system. See this story. The story says the first court date won’t be until February 28, but it seems likely Zukerberg can get the case expedited, because the primary is April 1.

The voters of D.C. passed a charter amendment saying that voters would start electing Attorney General in 2014, but the District doesn’t want to hold the election until 2018. The ballot language specified that the first election would be in 2014, but the actual text of the amendment (which wasn’t printed on the ballot) said the city could decide when to start electing that office.

Alabama Independent Candidate Files Ballot Access Brief in Eleventh Circuit

Posted on by December 2, 2013
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On December 2, independent candidate James Hall filed this 62-page brief in the Eleventh Circuit, in Hall v Bennett, 13-15214. The issue is whether petition requirements must be relaxed in a special election, when the petitioning period is so much shorter. The election is to fill the vacant U.S. House Seat, First District of Alabama.

Massachusetts Moves 2014 Primary Date

Posted on by December 2, 2013
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On November 26, Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick signed HB 3764, which moves the 2014 primary date from September 16 to September 9. The bill only applies to 2014, so under current law, primaries in years beyond 2014 continue to be seven weeks before the general election, which would have been September 16 in 2014 if HB 3764 hadn’t passed.

The legislature created HB 3764 on November 18. The House passed it the same day and the Senate passed it the next day. Until the bill passed, Massachusetts had been scheduled to have the latest primary of 2014. But now, it is merely tied with Delaware, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island for having the nation’s last 2014 primary. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.

Alabama Constitution Party Petition for Special Legislative Election Hampered by Alabama Secretary of State

Posted on by December 2, 2013
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The Constitution Party has been petitioning for ballot status in the upcoming special election, State House district 31. In this district, 512 valid signatures are needed for independent candidates and for unqualified parties. Normally Alabama checks petitions on a flow basis, so that petitioning groups can tell how they are doing, and how many more they need. But now, the Secretary of State refuses to check any of the party’s petitions until after the deadline, so the party doesn’t have the benefit of knowing how many more signatures it needs.

The party has collected 675 signatures and is working to collect more. The deadline is 4 p.m. on Tuesday, December 3. That is also the date of the Republican primary. No Democrat filed, so this will be a one-candidate election if the party’s petition does not succeed, because no one else is petitioning. The 31st district is in Elmore and Coosa Counties.

Because there are four Republicans running in the primary tomorrow, probably no one will get a majority and there will be a run-off primary on January 28, 2014. In that case, the election itself will be in March 2014.

Ninth Circuit Upholds Federal Law that Prevents Public Broadcast Stations from Selling Ads

Posted on by December 2, 2013
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Congress has long made it illegal for public broadcasting stations to sell advertising. On December 2, an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit overruled a 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, and upheld the federal law. The case had been brought by a public television station that wants to sell advertising, including issue advertising and also advertising by candidates. Here is the opinion. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.