On July 13, the Socialist Workers Party submitted 7,080 signatures to place its nominee for U.S. House on the ballot in New York’s special election set for September 13. No other group or independent candidate submitted a petition. The law requires 3,500 for independent candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties, for U.S. House, and the law does not reduce this number when the petitioning period is short (as it almost always is, in special elections).

The SWP collected these signatures in only four days. The only other candidates on the ballot will be the Democrat and the Republican, unless the Green Party exercises its right to nominate someone without a petition (the Green Party is a qualified party in New York, so it has this option).

On July 14, a California bill to require that initiative, referendum and recall petitioners must wear buttons was amended. The bill originally required volunteers to wear a badge saying “volunteer circulator” but now the bill does not require volunteers to wear any badge. As amended, the bill still requires paid circulators to wear a badge saying “paid circulator.”

The bill was originally written to apply to all petitioners, because the U.S. Constitution protects the right of people to be paid to circulate petitions. The bill originally covered every circulator, because of the principle that people can’t be penalized for exercising constitutional rights. Now that the bill has been amended, it may be unconstitutional because it treats different types of petitioner differently.

On July 14, the California legislature passed AB 461, which says that write-ins are valid even if the voter forgot, or didn’t know, to “X” the box next to the name written in. The legislature had passed a similar bill several years ago, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had vetoed it.

Write-ins are still important in California primaries, and for non-partisan elections, and for President.