On April 16, the 6th circuit refused to stay the U.S. District Court order in Hunter v Hamilton County Board of Elections, 12-3224. This is the long-running election dispute in Cincinnati, Ohio, over whether certain provisional ballots in a November 2010 partisan race for Juvenile Court Judge should be counted. The vote was 2-1. Judges Karen Moore and R. Guy Cole, Clinton appointees, were in the majority. Dissenting is Judge John M. Rogers, a Bush Jr. appointee. Here is the brief order. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

This Gadsden (Alabama) Times article says that last week, Bill Armistead, chair of the Alabama Republican Party, wrote all Alabama Republican legislators and asked them not to support SB 15. SB 15 lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates and newly-qualifying political parties.

The letter says that minor party and independent candidates should be kept off the ballot because “they can’t win”. However, in May 2011, in a special legislative race for the State House, district 105, a Constitution Party nominee did get on the ballot and polled 46.02% of the vote in a two-person race. Also in 1988 the Libertarian Party elected a nominee to local partisan office in Lee County, and in 1994 the Patriot Party elected a County Commissioner in a partisan election in Greene County.

It is especially egregious for the Republican Party of Alabama to oppose letting independent and minor party candidates on the general election ballot, because the Alabama major parties have the statutory right to block anyone from running in their primaries if the party feels that the candidate is not “loyal” to that major party. Every year, either the Alabama Republican Party, or the Alabama Democratic Party, blocks candidates from its primary ballot because it doesn’t like their political behavior. In Alabama, candidates running in partisan primaries file with the party, not with elections officials. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for the link.

On April 16, U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg, an Obama appointee in the District of Columbia, refused to enjoin a 1940 law that makes it illegal for anyone who holds a contract to supply goods or services to the federal government to make any donation to any political party or any candidate for federal office. Here is the 26-page order. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. The case is Wagner v FEC.