The minutes of the Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) are now posted at cofoe.org, for the annual board meeting held on July 15, 2012.
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While Mitt Romney toured Poland, he was met with groups of Poles who expressed their support for Ron Paul. See this story.
On July 30, a U.S. District Court ruled that Virginia’s ban on out-of-state circulators is unconstitutional. The case is Libertarian Party of Virginia v Judd, eastern district, 3:12cv367. Here is the decision. Thanks to Marc Montoni for this news. The ACLU did this case for the Libertarian Party.
On July 30, the trial opened in Service Employees International Union v Husted, s.d., 2:12-cv-562. This is a case challenging Ohio election laws that say provisional ballots are void if they aren’t cast in the right precinct. See this story.
There has already been a great deal of litigation around that Ohio restriction, but this case differs from several others, because in this case the law itself is being challenged on constitutional grounds.
On July 30, the Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the District of Columbia ban on letting out-of-district circulators work in Washington, D.C. The case is Libertarian Party v Nichols, 12-1248. Here is the complaint.
Only six states still ban out-of-state circulators for all minor party and independent candidate petitions: California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. South Dakota bans out-of-state circulators for independent candidate petitions but not petitions to qualify a new party. Lawsuits against residency requirements for circulators are pending in California and Virginia.