U.S. District Court Refuses to Put Independent Candidate on Ballot for Mayor of Elyria, Ohio

Posted on by September 22, 2011
Reply

On September 21, U.S. District Court Judge Dan A. Polster, a Clinton appointee, declined to put Tim Quinn on the ballot for Mayor of Elyria, Ohio, as an independent candidate. The case is Quinn v Lorain County Board of Elections, n.d., 1:11-cv-1968. There is no written opinion. Quinn submitted enough valid signatures, but he was kept off the ballot because he had voted in the Democratic primary.

Ohio election law does not say that independent candidates must not have voted in a partisan primary. It just says they must not have run in a partisan primary.

Third Circuit Changes its Mind, Removes Carl Lewis from the Ballot

Posted on by September 22, 2011
Reply

On September 22, three judges of the Third Circuit issued a new opinion in Carl Lewis’s ballot access lawsuit. The new opinion upholds the decision of the U.S. District Court, and the Secretary of State, that he should not be on the ballot. This is a reversal of what the same panel did last week. Here is the 10-page decision. The case is Lewis v Guadagno, 11-3401. The new ruling does not mention that the same panel had issued a contrary ruling last week.

The new opinion relies on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Clements v Fashing, issued in 1982, saying that the right to be a candidate is not a fundamental right. The new opinion upholds the constitutionality of New Jersey’s Constitution, which requires a candidate for State Senate to have lived in the state for the four years preceding the election. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Ohio 2012 Primary to be in March, not May

Posted on by September 22, 2011
Reply

According to this story, and this story, on September 21, the Ohio Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee killed HB 318. Also, the redistricting bill was amended to show that the primary date is March 6, 2012. As a result, the Ohio 2012 primary (for president and all other partisan office) will be in March, not May. This means that the statutory deadline for petitions to qualify a new party, in 2012, will be in December 2011, not February 2012.

On September 7, 2011, a U.S. District Court had ruled that even if the 2012 primary were in May 2012, that deadline for a newly-qualifying party to submit its petition (3 months before the primary, which means a deadline of early February) is still too early, and therefore the court ordered the Secretary of State to leave the Libertarian Party on the ballot in 2012. That court decision did not discuss the status of the other minor parties that had been ballot-qualified in 2008 and 2010, the Constitution, Green, and Socialist Parties.

Given that the statutory deadline will be in December 2011, this increases the likelihood that the Ohio Secretary of State will agree to include the Constitution, Green, and Socialist Parties on the 2012 ballot, and probably Americans Elect as well, without more litigation.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Appoints a New Election Board Member who Doesn’t Meet D.C. Residency Requirement

Posted on by September 22, 2011
Reply

On September 21, Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray appointed three new members of the District of Columbia Board of Elections. However, one of his nominees, Robert L. Mallett, does not meet the city’s duration of residency requirement. That law requires members of the Board to have lived in the District continuously for the previous three years. Mallett does not meet that requirement. See this story.

City councilmember Mary Cheh said Mallett “could always petition for an exception.” D.C. also requires candidates for District of Columbia presidential electors to have lived in the District for the preceding three years, a law that has made it difficult for some minor parties in the past to field a slate of presidential electors. D.C. also does not permit petitioners to work in the District if they are not residents.

D.C. officials seem to have a propensity for ignoring election laws that are inconvenient. In 2010, initial election results showed that no Republican nominee for districtwide partisan office had polled as many as 7,500 votes. The D.C. Board of Elections then re-interpreted the law on how a party remains ballot-qualified, which on its face appears to require a party to poll 7,500 votes every two years. The D.C. Board said that because John McCain had polled more than 7,500 votes for President in the District in November 2008, that was good enough to extend the party’s status for four years, not just two years, and that therefore the party was still ballot-qualified. When the final returns were compiled, however, it turned out that the Republicans had polled more than 7,500 votes for one office in 2010.

Rhode Island Republican Legislator, Expelled from Republican Caucus, Joins Libertarian Party

Posted on by September 22, 2011
Reply

Rhode Island State House member Daniel P. Gordon, Jr., elected as a Republican to his first term in November 2010, was expelled by the Republican House caucus earlier this month after he was arrested for not having appeared some time earlier in a Massachusetts court. See this story about his legal troubles. On September 21, he became a dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party. It is not clear if he has changed his voter registration from “Republican” to “Libertarian.” If he does so, the state will consider him a registered independent, because the Libertarian Party has never been a qualified party in Rhode Island. However, the voter registration form includes a blank line for “political party” so he is free to write in “Libertarian” on the card.

Gordon supported Ron Paul for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, and says he has long been a libertarian by philosophy. His election to the Rhode House in November 2010 was extremely close; the vote was 2,707 for Gordon and 2,660 for his Democratic opponent. He represents the 71st district, centered on Portsmouth. Thanks to Eric Dondero and Austin Cassidy for this news.