Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, has announced that he will run in the Republican primary in 2012 in Montana for Lieutenant Governor. In Montana, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a team in the primary as well as in November. Baldwin’s running mate will be Robert Fanning. Thanks to Gene Berkman for this news.
This blog is encouraging all readers to contribute to the Jerry Trudell lawsuit in Vermont. On November 14, Fairvote, a national organization which promotes proportional representation, instant runoff voting, and other alternative forms of voting, pledged $100 to the fund. The lawsuit concerns the Vermont independent candidate petition deadline. The 2009 session of the Vermont legislature moved that deadline from September to June. Trudell filed a lawsuit against the law but lost in lower state court, and he will appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court if he can raise approximately $2,500 for the transcript. If you wish to pledge, e-mail richardwinger@yahoo.com. $740 has now been pledged. No contributions are expected unless and until the pledges equal at least $2,000. The Coalition for Free & Open Elections will contribute the remainder, if the $2,000 limit is reached.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, will hold oral arguments in Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections, on February 10, 2012, Friday, at 9:30 a.m. The case is over whether the U.S. Constitution protects the right of voters to have their valid write-in votes counted. The U.S. District Court had ruled that there is no such right. The case arose after Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 2008, filed with the D.C. Board of Elections to have his write-ins tallied. A 1974 decision of the District’s highest “state” court had ruled that D.C. general election ballots must include write-in space for president. The D.C. Board had then set forth regulations, governing which presidential candidates should have the ability to have their write-ins counted. The regulations require the presidential candidate to submit the names three presidential elector candidates, who would go to the electoral college if the write-in candidate won the election. These elector candidates must have lived in the District for at least three years. No other write-in presidential candidate in 2008 complied with these regulations.
Although Barr followed these procedures, the Board still refused to count his write-in votes, because it would cost too much money and bother. The three judges will be David S. Tatel and Merrick B. Garland, Clinton appointees, and Brett M. Kavanaugh, a Bush Jr. appointee. Garland is one of the three judges who, in 2005, ruled that the postal service must allow petitioning on its exterior sidewalks (those parallel to streets).
The Boston Globe has this article about Americans Elect, which contains a serious misstatement of fact about ballot access laws. The story says 22 states do not permit a new political party to start petitioning, registration drives, or other tasks involving getting on the ballot until January 1 of the election year. Actually, there are only nine states that do not permit ballot access work for a new party to begin until the election year.
The nine states are Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. What is most disappointing about the article is that it even misrepresents Massachusetts election law. The only method for a group to transform itself into a qualified party before any given election in Massachusetts is for it to persuade 1% of the state’s registered voters to enroll into that group, on voter registration forms. This route to the ballot has existed since 1990, and it is so difficult, it has never been used. It requires all these registered voters by November of the odd year before the election. This is one of two state ballot access requirements that is so difficult, even Americans Elect isn’t attempting it. Obviously, since Massachusetts requires the group to get approximately 40,000 registered members by November 11, 2011, the registration drive must be accomplished in the odd year before the election year. Yet the Boston Globe story says Massachusetts is a state that “does not allow the process to begin until after the year of the general election.”
Massachusetts also has procedures to get independent candidates on the November ballot by petition, but the petition must contain the name of a candidate. The Massachusetts policy on whether stand-ins are permitted on this petition is hopelessly murky. The Secretary of State permitted it in 1980, 1996, 2000, and 2004, but refused in 2008.
The hearing in U.S. v State of New York, 10-cv-1214, over the state’s primary date, has been postponed for a third time. It was going to be on November 17, but now is set for December 1. The case concerns New York’s September 2012 primary date (for office other than President). With the primary that late, New York is unable to comply with the 2009 law that tells states they must send overseas absentee ballots at least 45 days before any federal primary or federal general election. The case is in U.S. District Court in Albany, in front of Judge Gary Sharpe.
