The October 3 edition of the Indianapolis Star has this editorial, advocating several election law reforms, including ballot access reform.  The editorial is good, but it omits a lot of relevant information.  Indiana is one of only four states in which Ralph Nader never appeared on the ballot, even though he placed third in the presidential elections of 2000, 2004, and 2008.  The editorial should have mentioned that.  Other important minor party and independent presidential candidates who have been omitted from Indiana’s ballot include John G. Schmitz in 1972, Eugene McCarthy in 1976, and Ron Paul in 1988.  Parties that never qualified a statewide candidate in Indiana include the Natural Law Party, the Green Party, and the Constitution Party.

Indiana is the only state with difficult ballot access in which there never seems to be any activism to change the laws.  One problem is that Indiana legislative rules require bills to be introduced in December of the year before the session starts.  Now is the time for anyone who lives in Indiana, and who wants to do something about the ballot access problem, to be seeking legislators to sponsor bills in 2011.  Thanks to Mark Rutherford and also Jay Parks for the link.

On October 1, the North Dakota Libertarian Party filed a notice of appeal to the 8th circuit, in Libertarian Party of North Dakota v Jaeger.  The issue is a state law that does not permit any political party to run a candidate for the legislature, with the party label, unless approximately 10% to 15% of the voters choose to vote in that party’s primary.  North Dakota has open primaries; any voter can choose any party’s primary ballot.  It is wildly unlikely that any new or minor party would ever be able to attract between 10% and 15% of all the primary voters to vote in its primaries.  Traditionally, very few voters in open primary states choose to vote in a minor party primary.  Even the Vermont Progressive Party’s primary this year attracted fewer than 600 voters, yet the Progressive Party regularly elects six or so members of the state legislature.

The Illinois First District Appellate Court has received briefs from both sides  in Constitution Party v State Board of Elections, 1-10-2813.  The issue is whether the statewide candidates of the Constitution Party will be on the ballot.  Under the ruling of the lower court, the party has 24,920 valid signatures, and it needs 25,000.

One issue in the appeal is whether to count the 82 otherwise valid signatures collected by Rosanna Pulido.  The lower court did not count them because Pulido was a candidate for U.S. House in the February 2010 Republican primary.  The law is ambiguous on whether someone who was involved with a primary petition is free to circulate for a different office, for an unqualified party, in the general election.  In the past, the law prohibited individuals from circulating both types of petition, but the law has changed since then.  Also, earlier this year another State Appeals Court ruled that Steven Rauschenberger could be a Republican nominee for State Senate this year even though he had voted in a Democratic primary in 2009.

Another issue in the case is whether to re-validate 94 signatures that the lower court did not validate, given serious due process problems that made it difficult for the Constitution Party to show that those 94 signatures are valid.  To read briefs in the case, see a special web page set up by the Constitution Party, http://objections.runrandyrun.com.  See here for the party’s appeal brief.  Thanks to Russell Van Zandt for this news.