Minor Party Lawsuit Against Essense of California Top-Two Hearing Date Set

Posted on by February 23, 2012
Reply

A California Superior Court in Alameda County will hear arguments in Rubin v Bowen on March 6, Tuesday, at 9 a.m. This is the case filed by the Peace & Freedom Party, Libertarian Party of California, and the Alameda County Green Party, against California’s “top-two” system. It concerns the essential characteristic of all top-two systems, that the system inevitably excludes all parties from the general election season and the general election ballot except for the Democratic and Republican Parties. The hearing is at the Alameda County Courthouse, 1221 Oak Street, department 16.

This case should not be confused with the older California lawsuits Field v Bowen, and Chamness v Bowen, which only attacked two particular aspects of California’s top-two system (the ban on counting write-ins, and the discriminatory policy on ballot labels).

Georgia Bill Defeated; Bill Would have Required Petition Signers to Show Photo-ID

Posted on by February 22, 2012
Reply

On February 22, the Georgia Senate Ethics Committee defeated SB 377, which would have required petition circulators to sign under penalty of perjury that everyone who signed the petition showed government-photo ID. The committee vote was not recorded, but it seems the vote was 3-6. The three State Senators who voted for SB 377 are John Albers, William Ligon, and Buddy Carter.

This bill was defeated because five individuals showed up to oppose the bill. They are Garland Favorito of the Constitution Party, former independent candidate Faye Coffield, former independent candidate Ray Boyd, John Fortune, and Yasha Heidari, who was once attorney for the Georgia Ethics Commission. The bill was also defeated because many other individuals phoned Senators on the Committee, or sent e-mail, and asked them to oppose the bill.

One of the main points made by the witnesses was that if the bill’s author thinks petition forgery is a problem, the state should abolish mandatory ballot access petitions and rely on filing fees, as Florida as done. Under current law, petitioning candidates must pay very large filing fees (3% of the annual salary of the office); there is no real need to require any petitions. Thanks to Garland Favorito for this news.

North Dakota Libertarian Party Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Ballot Access Case

Posted on by February 22, 2012
Reply

On February 21, the North Dakota Libertarian Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its ballot access case. North Dakota won’t let minor parties place nominees on the November ballot for legislature unless between 10% and 15% of all the voters who turn out in a primary election choose that minor party’s primary ballot. The case is Libertarian Party of North Dakota v Jaeger. Here is the cert petition.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear any ballot access appeal brought by a minor party or independent in the past twenty years (excluding a Georgia case over whether candidates can be forced to take a drug test), this is the first appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court since 1968 involving a ballot access hurdle that requires support greater than 5% of the electorate.

Ohio Provisional Ballot Case to be Appealed Again

Posted on by February 22, 2012
Reply

On February 21, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said that Hamilton County Board of Elections will appeal the Hunter lawsuit to the 6th circuit again. This is the case that was filed after the November 2010 election, when an extremely close race for Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge seemed to turn on whether certain provisional ballots should be counted. See this story. The case has already been to the 6th circuit once. The disputed ballots still haven’t been counted. The case is of great theoretical importance, because it concerns to what extent the Equal Protection portion of the 14th amendment protects voting rights. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.