On June 22, the Prohibition Party national convention nominated Jack Fellure for President, and Toby Davis for Vice-President Fellure is a retired engineer who lives in West Virginia. Davis is a church pastor who lives in Mississippi.
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On June 21, a Maryland state circuit judge heard arguments in the lawsuit over whether the Green Party petition and the Libertarian Party petitions for ballot status in 2012 and 2014 have enough signatures. At the end of the hearing, he ruled orally that the petitions are valid. Thanks to Bob Johnston for this news. UPDATE: here is the 2-page order.
Ever since 1943, the Prohibition Party has followed a policy of nominating its presidential nominee in the odd year before the presidential election. The party is meeting for that purpose June 20-22 in Cullman, Alabama. The presidential nominee will be chosen on June 22. Two individuals are interested in obtaining the nomination, Jim Hedges of Pennsylvania, and Jack Fellure of West Virginia.
The Prohibition Party started its habit of nominating in the year before the election after its 1940 experience in Pennsylvania. In 1937 the state had moved its petition deadline to April of presidential election years. The party submitted a timely petition listing candidates for presidential elector, but the petition didn’t name the party’s presidential nominee, Roger W. Babson, because he hadn’t yet been nominated and the party didn’t know who was going to be its nominee when it submitted the petition. But the state rejected the petition because it hadn’t named the presidential nominee. To avoid this problem in the future, the party began nominating its presidential candidate far earlier in the process.
On the afternoon of June 21, eleven judges of the 9th circuit will rehear the case over whether Arizona is violating law by requiring voter registration applications to include proof of the new voter’s citizenship. The hearing is in Pasadena, California. See this story. An original panel of the 9th circuit last year had struck down the law on the grounds that the federal moter-voter law precludes states from requiring additional documents to be attached to voter registration applications. The original panel’s vote had been 2-1 and had included retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The federal government has intervened in the case on the side of the voters who had challenged the law.
The June 20 Washington Post has this op-ed by Theresa Amato, making the point that inclusive debates can dramatically alter the fortunes of candidates who do substantially better than expected. Amato was campaign manager for Ralph Nader in both 2000 and 2004. Nader, of course, was never permitted to participate in general election presidential debates with his major party opponents. In the United States, inclusive presidential debates in the primary season, for major party contenders, is routine. But somehow, when general election debates are being held, suddenly the media and powerful political figures declare that having more than two candidates in the debate is distracting and not in the public interest. Thanks to Oliver Hall for the link.