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.

North Carolina holds its primary on May 8. Three parties will nominate by primary: Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian. Newly-qualifying parties nominate by convention.

According to this story, North Carolina election officials must print up seven types of primary ballot. There is the standard partisan primary ballot for each of the three parties that is nominating by primary. There is a non-partisan primary ballot for voters who are not registered members of any of the three primary parties. The non-partisan primary ballot only contains a statewide ballot measure, concerning same-sex marriage.

Then there are separate primary ballots for voters who will be age 18 by the November 2012 election, but who are not yet age 18. North Carolina law lets them vote in partisan primaries, if they will be age 18 by November. But, North Carolina law does not let them vote on ballot measures. Therefore, there are special primary ballots for these 17-year olds, that contain the partisan offices but not the statewide ballot measure.