Lori Maslow has obtained an extension of time in which to file a cert petition in the U.S. Supreme Court, over her case involving who can circulate a candidate petition in a primary election. Maslow and her husband are not registered to vote in the same party in New York. She wanted to help circulate her husband’s petition to get on the ballot in the primary, but state law made that illegal, because she is not a member of his political party. The 2nd circuit upheld the restriction that only members of a party may circulate candidate petitions to get on that party’s primary ballot.

Her cert petition would have been due in three days, but she has obtained an extension until January 31, 2012, to file. The case is Maslow v Board of Elections in the City of New York.

The Virginia Republican Party, if it wished, could probably win a lawsuit against the ban on write-ins in its own 2012 presidential primary. Winning against the ban on write-ins would make it possible for Virginia voters who vote in that primary to have a free choice of candidates.

The Virginia Constitution, Article II, section 3, says, “In elections other than primary elections, provision shall be made whereby votes may be cast for persons other than the listed candidates or nominees.” Because this section protects write-in voting in general elections, all Virginia ballot-counting machines are able to handle write-in votes.

The only possible purpose for excluding primaries from the write-in guarantee is to protect the interest of parties. But a party that wants write-ins in its own primary ought to have the constitutional clout to demand it. The U.S. Supreme Court has protected the ability of political parties to control their own nomination process, especially in the recent party rights decision, New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres, 552 U.S. 196 (2008). Also, Virginia state courts have always recognized a strong role for political parties in the nominations process.

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin’s bill to expand voting rights in federal elections for ex-felons is described on the Senator’s web page here. The text of his bill, S2017, is still not available on the Library of Congress’s web page, but the bill is fully described at the link. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).