See this story, which describes a hearing in the South Carolina Supreme Court, over whether even more Republican primary candidates should be removed from the ballot. Even though almost 200 have already been disqualified in the June 12 primary for state and local office (both Republicans and Democrats), it appears that some candidates who also did not follow the strict rules about filing a Statement of Economic Interest were allowed on the Republican primary ballots.
Over the June 2-3 weekend, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota held a state convention. Delegates voted by a margin of 60%-40% to put support for Ranked Choice Voting (sometimes called Instant Runoff Voting) into the party’s state platform.
The Socialist Workers Party will announce its national ticket on the weekend of June 23-24. The party has already filed for James Harris for president in Colorado, but he may just be a stand-in. UPDATE: the original post said the dates would be June 9-10, but that was incorrect and has been corrected.
The Socialist Workers Party is one of only two minor parties that has had a presidential nominee in every presidential election since the end of World War II. The Prohibition Party is the other such party. At one time or another, the Socialist Workers Party has placed its presidential nominee on the ballot at least once in all but twelve states. The most populous of the twelve states in which it has never had its nominee on the ballot is Georgia. During the 1970’s, the Socialist Workers Party filed more constitutional ballot access cases than any other party. Five times, its election law cases have received full opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court. The party won two of them (Ohio and Illinois) and lost the other three (Georgia, Washington, and Texas).
On June 4, U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Mark Udall (D-Colorado) introduced a bill to delete any public funds for presidential convention expenses. The bill, if enacted, would not take effect until next year. Each party that polled at least 25% of the vote in the last presidential election is entitled to approximately $17,000,000 to help pay for its national presidential conventions. Parties that got 5% but under 25% get a lesser amount.
The bill would not have any effect on money spent by government to provide security for the conventions, which now requires an expenditure of approximately $100,000,000. Here is the text of the bill.
On May 17, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed HB 12-1292. It is an omnibus election law bill. It moves the deadline for an independent presidential candidate, or the presidential nominee of an unqualified party, from June 4 to August 8. This is a major improvement. Before this bill passed, Colorado had the nation’s earliest independent presidential deadline. The bill takes effect immediately.
Now, the earliest independent presidential petition deadline in the nation is on June 14. Two states use that deadline, North Carolina and Vermont. Lawsuits are pending against the deadlines of both states, although the North Carolina lawsuit concerns the deadline for newly-qualifying parties, not the independent presidential deadline.
The bill also raises the filing fee for independent presidential candidates from $500 to $1,000, effective 2016. Colorado had the nation’s most crowded presidential general election ballot in history in 2008. Sixteen candidates qualified. The presidential nominees of qualified parties do not need to pay a filing fee. Colorado’s qualified parties include the Republican, Democratic, Constitution, Green, Libertarian, and Americans Elect Parties.
