South Carolina Legislative Race Will Probably List Only Two Candidates, a Libertarian and an Independent

Posted on by June 29, 2012
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It is likely that the only two names printed on the November 2012 ballot in South Carolina’s state house race, 26th district, will be Libertarian Jeremy Walters and independent Raye Felder. See this story.

No Democrat ran. The Republican, Raye Felder, failed to qualify because of the May 2 decision of the State Supreme Court that disqualified all primary candidates who didn’t file Statements of Economic Interest in March. They had to file using printed forms, and also has to file electronically, and over 200 Republicans and Democrats failed to get on the primary ballots because they did not take both actions by the deadline. However, Felder is petitioning to be on the ballot in the general election as an independent candidate, and her petition will probably succeed.

South Carolina has a straight-ticket device, which injures independent candidates. South Carolina permits write-ins in general elections, so conceivably yet another candidate could emerge as a write-in candidate.

Fourth Circuit Rules that Corporations are Still Prevented from Donating to Candidates for Federal Office

Posted on by June 29, 2012
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On June 28, the 4th circuit ruled in USA v Danielczyk that federal laws that prohibit contributions to federal candidates are still constitutional. Here is the 12-page decision. As is well known, in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v FEC that corporations cannot be prevented from spending money to spread their own message about federal candidates and whether voters should support them or not.

The 4th circuit said there are substantial differences between independent spending and campaign contributions. “Direct contributions do not necessarily fund political speech”, the decision says. More importantly, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in the past has upheld laws that ban corporate contributions to federal candidates. The most recent such decision, FEC v Beaumont, was issued in 2003.

It is likely that the Danielczyk case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Marilyn Marks Finally Wins her Court Battle to Inspect Old Ballots from City of Aspen

Posted on by June 29, 2012
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Marilyn Marks, an activist who worries about the accuracy of vote-counting equipment, has finally won her court battle to inspect ballots cast in Aspen, Colorado city elections from 2009. See this story. On June 28, the Colorado Supreme Court said it will not review the State Court of Appeals decision that had said old ballots are public records.

The legislature had passed a bill this year, clarifying that old voted ballots are public records available for public inspection (with certain restrictions), but that had not ended the controversy over ballots from a past election. When the ballots are made available for public inspection, of course there will be no method for knowing which voter put any particular ballot in the ballot box.