On July 30, a U.S. District Court ruled that Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators is unconstitutional. The case is Libertarian Party of Virginia v Judd, eastern district, 3:12cv367. Here is the decision. Thanks to Marc Montoni for this news. The ACLU did this case for the Libertarian Party.
On July 30, the trial opened in Service Employees International Union v Husted, s.d., 2:12-cv-562. This is a case challenging Ohio election laws that say provisional ballots are void if they aren’t cast in the right precinct. See this story.
There has already been a great deal of litigation around that Ohio restriction, but this case differs from several others, because in this case the law itself is being challenged on constitutional grounds.
On July 30, the Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the District of Columbia ban on letting out-of-district circulators work in Washington, D.C. The case is Libertarian Party v Nichols, 12-1248. Here is the complaint.
Only six states still ban out-of-state circulators for all minor party and independent candidate petitions: California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. South Dakota bans out-of-state circulators for independent candidate petitions but not petitions to qualify a new party. Lawsuits against residency requirements for circulators are pending in California and Virginia.
Ballot Access News
July 1, 2012 – Volume 28, Number 2
| This issue was printed on cream paper. |
Table of Contents
Americans Elect is a ballot-qualified party in Arizona, with its own primary. The primary will be held on August 28. Already it had been known that two candidates had filed for U.S. House in the Americans Elect primary. Now it appears some candidates are also seeking the party’s nomination for county office in Cochise County. They will run as write-ins in the primary. Each only needs one write-in vote to receive the nomination (as long as they defeat anyone else who wants the same nomination for the same office). The candidates have campaigned among all six of the Americans Elect registrants in Cochise County.
