On November 18, James Ogle filed to appear on the ballot in the Libertarian Party’s presidential primary in Missouri. So far, he is the only candidate in that primary, although filing does not close until Tuesday, November 22. Ogle lives in California.
As reported earlier, a lawsuit challenging the Vermont June petition deadline for independent candidates will go forward, if enough contributions are pledged to help pay the cost of the transcript. As of mid-afternoon November 18, $865 has been pledged. To pledge, e-mail richardwinger@yahoo.com. Thank you.
The Portland Daily Sun (Maine) has this story on Americans Elect. It says the group has 24,000 signatures so far on its petition for recognition as a new party, and also says that Eliot Cutler, who was almost elected Governor as an independent in 2010, strongly backs the group. The Maine petition is one of the most difficult in the nation. Maine is the only state in which only independent voters, and voters who are members of that particular party, are permitted to sign the petition. It requires 28,639 valid signatures.
Any voter in Maine is already free to register as a member of Americans Elect on voter registration forms. Maine has other procedures for a group to become a qualified party. The method that is most commonly used is for a group to run a candidate for Governor or President, using the much easier independent petition. Then, if the group’s candidate gets at least 5% of the vote, that group becomes a qualified party. The Green Party used this method to obtain party status; it has never completed the difficult party petition. The party petition procedure has only existed since 1976, and was used only once before, by the Reform Party in 1995.
The November 18 New York Times has an op-ed by Rick Hasen, a prominent professor of law at the University of California at Irvine, and an expert on election law. His op-ed explains how important the federal Voting Rights Act is just now, and also explains that backers of the Act worry that the Act may soon be declared partially unconstitutional. See one version of the op-ed here.
The Utah Foundation has just published a study of Utah’s unique primary system. Utah is the only state in which no one can get on a primary ballot for any non-presidential office unless the candidate has high support at a party nominating convention first. In Utah, if a candidate (for office other than President) doesn’t get at least 40% of the votes at the party’s pre-primary nominating convention, he or she can’t run in that party’s primary. See the Utah Foundation’s press release here. The press release has a link to the study. The Utah Foundation recommends that Utah provide easier access for candidates to run in party primaries.
Connecticut once had a system very similar to Utah’s current system, but a U.S. District Court declared it unconstitutional in Campbell v Bysiewicz, 242 F.Supp. 2d 164, in 2003. However, given the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres, it is obvious that the Connecticut decision is no longer good law, and a lawsuit against the Utah system would not succeed, unless it was filed by a political party as applied to that party’s own nominating process.
