On April 23, AB 1419 passed the California Assembly Elections Committee unanimously. This is the bill that says a newly-qualifying party that only wishes to participate in the presidential election may get on the ballot as late as July. The existing law requires newly-qualifying parties to qualify by early January of the election year.

If the bill is signed into law, then Hawaii will have the nation’s earliest mandatory petition deadline for a newly-qualifying party. The Hawaii February deadline is the subject of a pending lawsuit in U.S. District Court that was filed by the Justice Party last year.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen deserves a great deal of credit for bringing AB 1419 into existence.

On April 22, the Peace & Freedom Party filed its opening brief in the Ninth Circuit in Peace & Freedom Party v Bowen, 13-15085. The issue is whether the California Secretary of State exceeded her authority when she deleted Peta Lindsay’s name from the list of 2012 presidential primary candidates submitted to her by the Peace & Freedom Party. The Secretary of State did so because Lindsay didn’t meet the constitutional qualifications to be President.

The brief cites the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says that Congress shall determine whether presidential candidates are qualified at the time Congress counts the electoral votes. The brief also mentions that when John McCain’s qualifications were challenged (on the basis that he was born in Panama), the Secretary of State took the position that she cannot judge presidential qualifications. Finally, the brief points out that there is no California law authorizing the Secretary of State to review the constitutional qualifications of candidates whose party wants their names printed on its presidential primary ballot.

If anyone can assist with my research project, please comment below, or else send me an e-mail at richardwinger@yahoo.com. The research project is to determine which state constitutions mention political parties. It has already been determined that the state constitutions of at least 34 states do mention them.

If anyone can find any mention of “political party” or “partisan” or “non-partisan” in the text of these 16 state Constitutions, please let me know: Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. I have already read the state constitutions of these 16 states, and I can’t find any of the terms. But it is easy to miss a short phrase in a lengthy document, and possibly one of you will find something I missed. Thank you very much.