Highest State Court in Maryland Will Hear State’s Appeal in Libertarian-Green Ballot Access Case

Posted on by November 4, 2011
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On October 24, the highest state court in Maryland, which is called the Court of Appeals, decided to hear Maryland State Board of Elections v Libertarian Party of Maryland, et al, no. 2011-277. The Libertarian and Green Parties had won this case at the trial court level. The state had then appealed to the mid-level court, but now the highest court will hear the case, so that there will be no proceedings in the mid-level court.

The issue is whether petition signatures are valid when the signer can be identified as a registered voter, but there is some slight difference between how the voter put his or her name and address on the petition, versus how it appears on the voter registration records. Another issue is whether, when a voter signs the petition twice, whether both signatures should be invalidated, or whether one of the signatures counts. The Maryland Court of Appeals, in the recent past, has been an excellent court for ballot access. Thanks to Doug McNeil for this news.

Indiana City Re-prints November 2011 Ballots to Correct Error in Order of Candidates

Posted on by November 4, 2011
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Greenwood, Indiana, holds partisan city elections on November 8, 2011. The only office on the ballot is Mayor. The ballot contains three candidates: Republican Mark W. Myers; Libertarian Jeff Spoonamore; and independent candidate David A. Payne. The Johnson County Election Board, which handles ballot-printing for Greenwood, originally printed the ballots showing Spoonamore on the bottom. However, Indiana election law says the nominees of qualified parties should appear on the general election ballot ahead of independent candidates.

Some Greenwood voters who are not members of the Libertarian Party complained, so the election board reprinted the ballots, so that the new ballots list Spoonamore second. Here is a story about the mayoral race, although it doesn’t mention the ballot order issue. But the story shows a picture of the three candidates, who debated each other on November 1. Thanks to Mark Rutherford for the news.

Greenwood is a rapidly-growing city of 50,000, just south of Indianapolis.

Sixth Circuit Finally Sets Hearing Date for Tennessee Political Party Rights Case

Posted on by November 4, 2011
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The Sixth Circuit will hold oral arguments on January 17, 2012, in Kurita v State Primary Board of Tennessee Democratic Party. The hearing will be at 1:30 p.m. in Cincinnati. This is the fascinating case, filed in 2008, over whether a party has a constitutional right to set aside the results of its primary and designate the primary loser as the party’s nominee. In 2008, State Senator Rosalind Kurita, a Democrat, had won the Democratic primary for another term in the Senate. But the Democratic Party rejected her as its nominee and instead designated the person who had polled the second-most number of votes in its primary.

The U.S. District Court had then upheld the action of the Democratic Party. Kurita had angered her party by her vote in favor of a Republican to head the Tennessee Senate. Also, the party charged that many Republicans had voted in the Democratic primary to help Kurita win her primary. Tennessee has open primaries and no registration by party.