See this story, which says that not only has the Republican Party of Nebraska appealed the Bob Kerrey ballot access case to the State Supreme Court, but that the Chief Justice has tentatively ruled that the appeal cannot go forward.
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On March 22, the Illinois Supreme Court issued this opinion in Wisnasky-Bettorf v Pierce, 111253. The unanimous opinion says that when a qualified party nominates a candidate after the primary (because that party hadn’t nominated anyone at its primary), it does not need to notify election authorities within three days after deciding to make such a nomination.
The lower courts had kept a Republican nominee for office off the ballot in November 2010 because the lower courts thought that the law required such a notification.
On March 22, a lower state court in Nebraska released a 9-page opinion in Nebraska Republican Party v Gale, Lancaster County district court, CI 12-1102. this is the case in which the Republican Party argued that Bob Kerrey should not be on the Democratic May 2012 primary as a candidate for U.S. Senate because he is not validly registered.
The written order matches what the judge said orally on March 21, that states cannot require congressional candidates to be registered voters. The opinion says, “States clearly cannot impose voter registration or residency requirements on candidates for U.S. Senate…the State of Nebraska does not have the constitutional authority to impose a voter registration requirement as a qualification for candidacy. Consequently, anything to do with voter registration can have nothing to do with whether candidate filing forms were properly filed.” The decision cites Schaefer v Townsend, the 9th circuit opinion that came to the same conclusion. It does not cite the 10th circuit decision that agreed, Campbell v Davidson.
Wisconsin election officials have received over 17,000 signatures on Americans Elect’s petition. 10,000 signatures are required. Assuming the petition is approved, Wisconsin will have four qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Constitution, and Americans Elect. Parties that are not qualified may still place nominees on the November ballot, with the party label, via the independent candidate procedures.
On March 20, the Maine legislature gave final approval to LD 1774, which amends the state’s program for public funding of campaigns for state office. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that public funding programs can’t give extra public funding to certain kinds of candidates. The bill conforms the Maine program to that decision.
Supporters of the Maine program do not like the bill. Since the extra public funding is being abolished, supporters of Public Funding wanted to increase the amount that eligible candidates receive when they first qualify, but the bill does not do that. See this story.