The three judges who will hear Kurita v The State Primary Board of the Tennessee Democratic Party on January 17 will be Judges Ronald Gilman, Eric Clay, and Alice Batchelder. This is a Sixth Circuit hearing. Judges Gilman and Clay are Clinton appointees, and Judge Batchelder is a Bush Sr. appointee. The issue in the case arose in 2008, after the Tennessee Democratic Party determined that Rosalind Kurita would not be its nominee for re-election to the State Senate, even though she won the Democratic primary. The case will test the extent to which the U.S. Constitution lets political parties control their own nomination process.

Texas has a unique law that says any party that wishes to petition for a place on the ballot must tell the Secretary of State no later than January 2. The law would probably be held unconstitutional if it were challenged, but it has never been challenged. It was passed in 1993. The law is wildly irrational because the petition itself can’t legally begin to circulate until April. If this law has been in existence before 1993, many important minor parties, such as Strom Thurmond’s States Rights Party of 1948, and Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party of 1912, and the Republican Party in 1854, would have been barred from the Texas ballot, because they weren’t formed until the middle of the election year.

Texas also has discriminatory ballot access laws that make it far more difficult for an independent presidential candidate to get on the ballot, than for a new party.

Donald Trump feels that it is possible he may wish to be an independent presidential candidate in 2012. Therefore, because he was aware of the Texas laws, he took the precautionary step of having his supporters tell the Texas Secretary of State that the “Make America Great Party” may wish to circulate a petition in Texas later this year. By having taken this step, if he should decide to be an independent presidential candidate in 2012, he is free to use the easier minor party petition procedures in Texas instead of the independent candidate petition procedures.

Texas election law section 161.002(a) says a party name may not be longer than three words. UPDATE: the offical filing says the name of the party is “Make America Great”, not “Make America Great Again”. The first draft of this post has been revised to show the corrected party name. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

In early 2011, Georgia Secretary of State Brian P. Kemp established an Elections Advisory Council to suggest improvements in Georgia election laws. The Council held public hearings during the spring and early summer of 2011. Members of the public attended these hearings and the issue of ballot access laws came up more often than any other issue. The Council still hasn’t issued its recommendations.

It may be fortunate that the Council is still weighing its ideas. The Virginia presidential primary ballot access controversy has garnered more attention for ballot access than any other news story in decades.

Georgia has a terrible set of ballot access laws, but most people in Georgia aren’t aware of that. In 1943, Georgia went from having extremely easy ballot access to having very difficult ballot access. The laws were made even worse in 1964. Since the 1964 revisions, no one has complied with the 5% petition requirement to get on the ballot for U.S. House, and even in the period 1943-1964, no minor party candidates qualified, although during the 1943-1964 period some independent candidates did qualify.

Georgia newspapers have never educated their readers about this record. Georgia did improve ballot access for statewide office only, in 1979 and again in 1986. But even for statewide office, Georgia has among the most severe requirements. Georgia is one of only four states in which Ralph Nader was never able to qualify for the ballot. The others were Oklahoma, Indiana, and North Carolina. Nader is the person who placed third in 2000, 2004, and 2008. When the presidential candidate who places third consistently can’t get on the ballot, something is wrong.