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Pennsylvania Libertarian Petition Challenge Process Likely to Extend Into this Coming Weekend

Posted on October 3, 2012 by adminOctober 3, 2012

The Pennsylvania statewide Libertarian challenge process still isn’t finished. It had been thought that it would be finished by Friday, October 5, but now it appears it can’t finish that fast, and the work will continue into the weekend. The process involves one volunteer from the Libertarian Party forces, and one volunteer for the Republican challengers, examining each signature and seeing if they can agree that the signature either is, or isn’t, valid.

Meanwhile the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has received briefs on the issue of whether certain kinds of signatures are valid. The Commonwealth Court had upheld signatures of voters who moved within the county and hadn’t yet updated their voter registration record, but the same court had invalidated signatures when the signer forgot, or didn’t know, to include “2012” in the date column. The petition form at the bottom says, “Revised Jan. 2012.” Both sides appealed to the State Supreme Court on the issue on which that side had lost.

Even if the State Supreme Court rules against the Libertarian Party on both points, the party may have enough valid signatures regardless. The petition is now only short a few hundred signatures from having enough valid signatures, even without the need to win anything at all in the State Supreme Court, and a few thousand remain to be examined. Thanks to Richard Schwarz for this news.

Florida Presidential Poll Asks Respondents about All Twelve Presidential Candidates on Florida Ballot

Posted on October 2, 2012 by adminOctober 2, 2012

On October 2, Suffolk U/WSUN-TV released the results of a Florida presidential poll. This poll is very unusual because it asks the respondents about each of the twelve presidential candidates on the ballot. The results: President Obama 46%, Mitt Romney 43%, Roseanne Barr 1%, Gary Johnson 1%, Jill Stein 1%. The other seven candidates had less than 1%. Undecided is 7% and refused is 1%. Thanks to Mike for the link. Scroll down to Question 14.

Pennsylvania Law Mandating Goverment Photo-ID at Polls Mostly Won’t be in Effect This Year

Posted on October 2, 2012 by adminOctober 2, 2012

On October 2, a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that the law passed this year, requiring voters at the polls to show government photo-ID, can’t be in effect this year, for the most part. Here is the decision. The ruling says there is no time to properly implement it.

U.S. District Court Judge Rules Against Letting Straight-Ticket Device be Used to Vote for Libertarian Presidential Electors

Posted on October 2, 2012 by adminOctober 2, 2012

On October 2, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Maloney refused to order Michigan to count straight-ticket votes for the Libertarian Party for the party’s slate of presidential electors. His 14-page opinion ignores the precedent set in Michigan in 1960, when Michigan let the Independent American Party appear on the ballot with unpledged presidential electors. Instead, the decision meanders into the history of U.S. presidential elections before the 12th amendment was adopted in 1804. Before the 12th amendment was adopted, presidential electors merely voted for individuals without specifying whether the intent of their vote was to vote for that individual for President or Vice-President. That has nothing to do with this case, Gelineau v Ruth Johnson.

The various federal judges who have ruled in the Michigan Libertarian presidential ballot access cases this year have ignored all these precedents in their opinions: (1) in 1980, Michigan didn’t interpret its “sore loser” law to include presidential primaries; (2) in four other presidential elections, Michigan printed the names of presidential or vice-presidential candidates who aren’t even qualified under the U.S. Constitution on the ballot; (3) the 1960 precedent mentioned above. The mark of a good judicial decision is to rebut the points of the losing side. The mark of a bad judicial decision is to ignore the losing side’s points. The quality of the Libertarian Michigan decisions this year has been low.

The judges have interfered with the free choice of voters. Michigan cast over 5,000,000 votes for President in 2008. Assuming the same number of voters vote again this year in Michigan, and assuming at least 1% of them would choose to vote for the Libertarian ticket (which is not unrealistic, given the polls that show Johnson above 1%, sometimes as high as 4% nationally), the judges have disenfranchised at least 50,000 voters. Fortunately the Secretary of State will recognize write-in votes for Gary Johnson. The judges in these cases are so hostile, probably if the Secretary of State had also refused to count write-ins, the judges would have approved that prohibition as well.

Michigan Libertarian Party Files Reply Brief, Again Asking that Straight-Ticket Votes be Counted for Party’s Presidential Electors

Posted on October 2, 2012 by adminOctober 2, 2012

On October 1, the Libertarian Party of Michigan filed this reply brief in Gelineau v Ruth Johnson in U.S. District Court. The brief again asks the court to order the Secretary of State to count straight-ticket votes cast for the Libertarian Party for the party’s presidential elector slate, assuming that such voters did not vote for any presidential candidate by any other means.