On April 7, the Oklahoma House Rules Committee passed SB 808. This is the bill that moves the Oklahoma presidential primary from February to March. It had already passed the Senate. The Oklahoma presidential primary is separate from the state’s primary for other office, and the dates of the Oklahoma presidential primary have no bearing on deadlines to put new parties or independent presidential candidate on the November ballot.
On April 7, the Oklahoma Senate passed HB 1615 unanimously. This is the bill that moves the non-presidential primary from July to June. It also moves the petition deadline for a new or minor party from May 1 to March 1.
Petition deadlines that early for new parties are unconstitutional. The cases that support this conclusion are unanimous:
1. New Alliance Party of Alabama v Hand, 933 F.2d 1568 (11th circuit). April was too early.
2. Sigler v McAlpine, Alaska superior court, 3rd dist., 3AN-88-8695. June was too early.
3. American Party of Arkansas v Jernigan, 424 F.Supp. 943 (1977). March was too early.
4. Warrick v Condre, US Dist Ct, sou. dist. of Indiana, IP-83-810-C. February was too early.
5. Libertarian Party of Kentucky v Ehrler, 776 F.Supp 1200 (east. dist. 1991). February was too early.
6. Stoddard v Quinn, 593 F.Supp 300 (Maine, US Dist Ct, 1984). April was too early.
7. Bradley v Mandel, 449 F.Supp 983 (U.S. Dist. Ct., Maryland, 1978). March was too early.
8. Serrette v Connolly, Suffolk Superior Court, 68172, Massachusetts, 1985. May was too early.
9. MacBride v Exon, 558 F.2d 443 (8th circuit 1977, Nebraska). February was too early.
10. Libertarian Party of Nevada v Swackhamer, 638 F.Supp 565 (1986). April was too early.
11. Council of Alternative Political Parties v Hooks, 121 F.3d 876 (3rd cir., New Jersey, 1997). April was too early.
12. Libertarian Party of Ohio v Blackwell, 462 F.3d 579 (6th circuit 2006). November of the year before the election was too early.
13. Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania v Davis, U.S. Dist. Ct., middle dist, Pa., 84-0262. May was too early.
14. Libertarian Party of South Dakota v Kundert, U.S. Dist. Ct, civ-83-3071. February was too early.
15. Libertarian Party of Tennessee v Goins, U.S. Dist. Ct., mid. dist., Tennessee, 3:08-63, not reported yet. March was too early.
Attempts are being made to communicate this information to Oklahoma legislators. The bill to lower the number of signatures for new and minor parties, HB 1058, has passed the House, but it has not made any headway so far in the Senate.
The Tennessee Senate had been scheduled to vote on SB 935 on April 7, but the vote has been postponed until April 14. The is the bill that makes miniscule improvements to the state’s procedure for ballot access for new and minor parties. The existing law is void because it was held unconstitutional last year.
California Assemblymember Ben Hueso has amended AB 651. The bill no longer requires initiative, referendum, and recall petition circulators to wear badges that say the name of the circulator’s employer. However, the bill still requires employers of circulators to register with the Secretary of State, pay an annual fee, and provide the Secretary of State with copies of the instructions for circulators. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for this news.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has announced the times and places for the first two meetings of his Georgia Elections Advisory Council. These meetings are an opportunity for members of the public to attend and express ideas for changing state election laws.
The first meeting is on Wednesday, April 27, at 10 a.m., in the Georgia Capitol, room 341. The second meeting is on Wednesday, May 25, at 1 p.m., at the Savannah Marriott Riverfront Hotel, 100 General McIntosh Boulevard, Savannah.
A similar advisory body in Florida had many meetings around that state during 1998. At every public meeting, people appeared to express the idea that Florida should reform its ballot access laws. No meeting was held without that issue being raised. The advisory body in Florida accepted the message, and placed ballot access reform on the November 1998 ballot, and the measure passed with 65% of the vote. Florida mandatory petitions for minor parties, and independent candidates (except presidential independents) were eliminated by that vote.
Georgia also has very high filing fees, and advocates in Georgia ought to appear at these meetings and advocate an end to mandatory petitions for all candidates seeking access to the general election ballot. The Georgia law for minor party and independent candidates for U.S. House is so bad, no one has complied with that law since it was re-written in 1964. The law requires a petition signed by 5% of the voters in the district; high filing fees; limited time in which to collect the signatures; notarization of all petition sheets; and the need for the candidate to pay the filing fee before the petition is due, so the candidate can’t even know if he or she is wasting the money.
