On July 22, two state affiliates of the Natural Law Party announced that they have nominated Cornel West for president. The two states are Florida and Mississippi. Because the Natural Law Party is recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a national committee, the party in Florida has the ability to nominate for president without the need for a petition.
In Michigan, the third state in which the Natural Law Party is on the ballot, the Natural Law nominee is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The 2024 Democratic national convention dates are August 19-22. There are five states that require qualified parties to certify the names of their presidential nominees earlier than September 1: California August 22; Montana August 21; Oklahoma August 22; Virginia August 23; Washington August 20.
If the Democratic Party decides to use the convention itself to choose a presidential nominee, and that process takes more than a day, there could be problems with some of the states listed above, especially Washington. In the past the Washington Secretary of State has accepted provision certification, but that might not work if there is no provisional certification. Provisional certification only works if it is possible to predict who the nominee will be.
In my opinion, the Washington state deadline is unconstitutional. Constitutional challenges to early deadlines for candidates to get on ballots are adjudicated under the principles of Anderson v Celebrezze. Lower courts must balance the harm done to voting rights by the early deadline, versus the harm done to election administration if the deadline is set aside. It seems obvious that there is no genuine state interest in deadlines as early as Washington’s. States are not required to mail their overseas absentee ballots until September 21.
Michigan requires the certification the day after the later of the party’s state or national conventions. The Michigan Democratic Party is free to have a special state convention at a late date.
On Sunday, July 21, President Joe Biden said he will not run for re-election. This development shows the wisdom of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 when it issued its decision in Anderson v Celebrezze. The Court struck down early petition deadlines for independent presidential candidates, and based its decision on history. The decision says unexpected events do happen sometimes, and the voters must be given a chance to react, with support for new candidates.
The agreement between the national committee of the Libertarian Party, and the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. campaign to cooperate on fundraising, is illustrated by this tweet.
Federal campaign law lets individuals donate considerably more to a national committee of a party, than to any candidate for federal office. The deal provides that individuals who have already given the maximum amount to Kennedy can now also donate to the Libertarian Party. Then, the Libertarian Party contributes 90% of that amount to the Kennedy campaign. So both campaigns benefit. This sort of arrangement would not be needed if there were fewer campaign finance limits, or if the federal limits were non-discriminatory.
David Larson, opinion editor of Carolina Journal, has this column criticizing the Democratic members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections for their obviously partisan bias when they make decisions about ballot access.
