On December 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3463, which ends public funding for presidential candidates. The House had passed another bill to do the same thing back on January 25, 2011. That bill was HB 359. Neither bill is expected to pass the Senate. See this story. HB 3463 also eliminates the federal agency that helps states with vote-counting machine technology, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC).
The attorney for the North Dakota Libertarian Party, Oliver B. Hall, has sent this letter to North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger. The letter explains that the recent 8th circuit decision in the party’s ballot access case said that once a party completes the 7,000-signature petition, it need never complete that petition again.
However, the apparent language of the statute, and precedent, say that parties always must re-petition in North Dakota, unless they happen to poll 5% of the vote for either President or Governor in presidential election years, or 5% for Secretary of State in midterm years. The letter asks that the Secretary of State express his opinion.
Hall had asked for reconsideration of the Eighth Circuit opinion, and also had suggested that the court might at least want to address its apparent error, but the Court simply denied the request and did not re-do its opinion.
Ben Manski will be the 2012 campaign manager for the Jill Stein presidential campaign. Stein is seeking the Green Party nomination. Manski has degrees in law and sociology, and has been a political activist with the Green Party ever since the party has existed. He was Midwest Field Director for Ralph Nader’s run in 2000, a field director of Greenpeace, an organizing director with Progressive Dane, national director of Campus Greens, and co-chair of the national Green Party. In 2010 Manski ran a competitive race for the Wisconsin legislature, winning 31.1% of the vote in a 4-candidate race and placing ahead of the Republican nominee. If all the ballots in which voters used the straight-ticket device had been excluded, he would have won the election.
The Green Party will hold its presidential convention in Baltimore, July 13-15.
On the evening of November 30, former Louisiana Governor and former Congressman Buddy Roemer officially declared that he is a candidate for the Americans Elect presidential nomination. See this story.
On November 30, the Libertarian Party filed the final brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Libertarian Association of Massachusetts v Galvin, SJ-2011-0348. Here is the memorandum in support of the party’s motion for summary judgment.
