Lee Goodman, General Counsel to the Virginia Republican Party, recently said, “States should study each and every condition they impose upon ballot access to ensure it is absolutely necessary to advance the government’s interest. Too often, burdens on ballot access become stale, and each state should reconsider its legal burdens, including Virginia.” See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
On January 10, 2012, the Constitution, Green and Libertarian Parties filed a lawsuit against the Alabama procedure for qualifying new and previously unqualified parties for the ballot. On February 9, U.S. District Court Judge William K. Watkins set a status conference for the case, to be held February 16 at 2 p.m. This quick action will probably make it possible for the case to be expedited.
On February 10, Wyoming State Senator Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) introduced SF 56, to convert Wyoming to a top-two system. The bill would only permit partisan labels for candidates who are members of qualified parties, so it would not treat all candidates equally. However, it does not eliminate write-in space on November ballots.
The bill is badly drafted. It amends section 22-5-101, which is titled “How candidates nominated”, to eliminate the ability of anyone to get on the general election ballot by independent petition or by convention of a qualified minor party. However, it does not repeal Article 3, which starts at 22-5-301, and which is titled “Nomination by Petition.”
The bill does not acknowledge that a top-two system cannot realistically apply to presidential elections, and by its literal language, would seem to eliminate normal party labels for presidential candidates at the general election. And, its change to 22-5-101 seems to eliminate the independent presidential petition procedure, although, as noted above, that is contradicted by its failure to amend 22-5-301.
On February 10, New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced A9271, to move the primary for state office from September to the fourth Tuesday in June. The bill also moves the petition deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties from late August to late May. The bill is intended to go into effect immediately. If it did, in 2012 the independent petition deadline would be May 29.
Such a law would violate Anderson v Celebrezze, the 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down early petition deadlines for independent presidential candidates. Since that decision came down, all petition deadlines for independent presidential candidates that were earlier than May, except for the Texas deadline, have been declared unconstitutional. Furthermore, in six states, June petition deadlines for independent presidential candidates, or independent candidates for all office, have been struck down (Alaska, Nevada, Arizona, Kansas, South Dakota, and Massachusetts).
A9271 reduces the number of signatures needed to get on the primary ballot by 25%, but it does not lower the number of signatures to get on the general election ballot.
The chief purpose of A9271 is to eliminate the August primary for state and local office, because New York almost certainly will have a June primary for Congress, and everyone agrees it would be foolish for the state to hold one primary for Congress, and another for state and local office. However, the issue of primary dates is entirely separate from the issue of when independent candidate petitions should be due. There is no rational reason for the bill to move the independent petition deadline.
On February 11, the Florida Libertarian convention included a debate among several candidates seeking the Libertarian Party nomination, and also a straw poll afterwards. This MSNBC story covers the event. As the article notes, Gary Johnson won the straw poll.
The article has a factual error. It says the Libertarian Party has never exceeded 1% of the presidential vote, but in 1980 the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, Ed Clark, exceeded 1%. He got 1.065%.
