Tennessee Democrat Who Lost U.S. Senate Primary Sues Democratic Party in Federal Court and Asks for a New Democratic Primary Election

Posted on by August 15, 2012
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As reported earlier, at the Tennessee Democratic Party primary on August 2, Mark Clayton won the nomination for U.S. Senate, even though he had a platform at odds with the platform of the Democratic Party, and even though he had only once in his life voted in a Tennessee Democratic primary. That one instance was in 2008, when he was also a candidate for U.S. Senate. He did not win the 2008 Democratic primary.

On August 15, another Democrat who ran for U.S. Senate in this month’s primary, Larry Crim, sued the Tennessee Democratic Party, charging that the party knew Clayton was not a bona fide Democrat, but that the party let him file anyway, because the party was prejudiced against Crim and knew that without Clayton in the race, Crim would appear first on the primary ballot. Candidates are listed by alphabetical order in Tennessee primaries. Here is the complaint. The case is Crim v Tennessee Democratic Party, middle district, 3:12-0838.

U.S. District Court Hears Arguments on Whether Ohio Must Preserve Early Voting for All Voters on an Equal Basis

Posted on by August 15, 2012
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On August 15, U.S. District Court Judge Peter Economus heard oral arguments in Obama for America v Husted, 2:12-cv-636. The issue is whether Ohio must let all voters participate in early voting during the weekend before the general election. The basis for the lawsuit is that Ohio lets members of the military use early voting on those days. See this story.

Jill Stein Submits Petitions in Idaho and Montana

Posted on by August 15, 2012
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On August 15, Jill Stein submitted, or is about to submit, petitions to be on the ballot in Montana and Idaho. Both petitions are considered to be independent candidate petitions. In Montana, though, the state will print “Green” next to Stein’s name on the ballot, assuming the petition had enough valid signatures. In Idaho, the label will be “independent” because Idaho doesn’t allow any other label for independent candidates.

Assuming the Idaho petition is valid, this will be the first time the Green Party presidential nominee, or any Green Party nominee for any partisan office, has ever been on the ballot in Idaho. In 2000, Idaho was one of the seven states in which Ralph Nader did not qualify. The Idaho ballot access laws for independent presidential candidates were eased in 2011, as a result of Ralph Nader winning a lawsuit against the old number of signatures. That lawsuit was Daien v Ysursa, won in 2010.

Rocky Anderson, presidential candidate, also expects to qualify as an independent in Idaho. Ballot-qualified parties in Idaho are Democratic, Republican, Constitution, and Libertarian. Ballot-qualified parties in Montana are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Americans Elect.

Wisconsin Won’t Enforce Presidential Elector Residency Requirement, Puts Green Party and Socialist Equality Party Presidential Candidates on Ballot

Posted on by August 15, 2012
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On August 14, the Wisconsin state elections office determined that Jill Stein (Green Party presidential nominee) and Jerry White (Socialist Equality Party presidential nominee) should be on the November ballot, even though their slate of presidential elector candidates did not include at least one resident of each U.S. House district. The office made this decision based on a 2004 precedent from the State Supreme Court that Ralph Nader had won.