John Wolfe, Jr., who won enough popular votes in the March 24 Louisiana Democratic presidential primary to receive three delegates to the Democratic National Convention, plans to sue the state Democratic Party because it won’t recognize his three delegates. See this story. After the primary was over, Wolfe appointed three delegates, but the state party says he should have appointed them late last year. Thanks to Randall Hayes for the link.
On April 16, the 6th circuit refused to stay the U.S. District Court order in Hunter v Hamilton County Board of Elections, 12-3224. This is the long-running election dispute in Cincinnati, Ohio, over whether certain provisional ballots in a November 2010 partisan race for Juvenile Court Judge should be counted. The vote was 2-1. Judges Karen Moore and R. Guy Cole, Clinton appointees, were in the majority. Dissenting is Judge John M. Rogers, a Bush Jr. appointee. Here is the brief order. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On April 16, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal brought by the city of Aspen, over whether ballots can be released for public inspection after an election is over (assuming nothing identifies which voter cast which ballot). The city had been waiting since November 10, 2011, for the Colorado Supreme Court to say whether it would hear this case.
The Colorado State Appeals Court had ruled that activists concerned with the reliability of vote-counting machines have a right to examine ballots, after the election is over and elections officials have finished counting them. The city is fighting that ruling. See this story.
This Gadsden (Alabama) Times article says that last week, Bill Armistead, chair of the Alabama Republican Party, wrote all Alabama Republican legislators and asked them not to support SB 15. SB 15 lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates and newly-qualifying political parties.
The letter says that minor party and independent candidates should be kept off the ballot because “they can’t win”. However, in May 2011, in a special legislative race for the State House, district 105, a Constitution Party nominee did get on the ballot and polled 46.02% of the vote in a two-person race. Also in 1988 the Libertarian Party elected a nominee to local partisan office in Lee County, and in 1994 the Patriot Party elected a County Commissioner in a partisan election in Greene County.
It is especially egregious for the Republican Party of Alabama to oppose letting independent and minor party candidates on the general election ballot, because the Alabama major parties have the statutory right to block anyone from running in their primaries if the party feels that the candidate is not “loyal” to that major party. Every year, either the Alabama Republican Party, or the Alabama Democratic Party, blocks candidates from its primary ballot because it doesn’t like their political behavior. In Alabama, candidates running in partisan primaries file with the party, not with elections officials. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for the link.
Frontloading HQ reports that in the most recent district caucuses in three states, Republican presidential candidates other than Mitt Romney did gain some delegates.
