Last night, Ballot Access News appealed for donations and/or pledges to COFOE (the Coalition for Free & Open Elections) for the purpose of making it possible for the Vermont ballot access lawsuit to go forward. In only 12 hours, $615 has been pledged. No money that has been pledged will necessarily be donated unless the goal of $2,000 has been met. Please consider e-mailing richardwinger@yahoo.com with a pledge. Small amounts do help.
Portland, Maine’s daily newspaper, the Press-Herald, has this editorial about Instant Runoff Voting, which the city used for the first time this past week.
Western Illinois University, in McComb, Illinois, since 2007, has held “the nation’s largest mock election” for President. A year before the actual election, students mimic the role of primary voters, caucus attendees, and hold mock presidential nomination procedures. Then there is a mock campaign, and a mock general election. See this story.
This year, the process started on October 25. The mock primary/caucus process produced three tickets: Democrats nominated Barack Obama for President and Hillary Clinton for Vice-President; Republicans nominated Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan; Greens nominated Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay. Then, at the mock general election, the results were 39% for the Democratic ticket, 33% for the Republican ticket, 27% for the Green ticket, and 1% other.
Libertarians were involved but they chose to work for Ron Paul in the mock Republican convention. Jill Stein spoke on campus, and this obviously helped the Green campaign, because no other actual presidential candidates appeared on campus. See this story at Green Party Watch, which has a link to Stein’s speech. Also, see this additional coverage at Jill Stein’s web page.
On November 11, World Net Daily carried this column by Tom Tancredo, explaining why the National Popular Vote Plan idea is beneficial to the United States and beneficial to conservatives. It will be interesting to see if his opinion sways the Constitution Party toward support for the plan. As most readers will remember, Tancredo was the Constitution Party’s gubernatorial nominee in Colorado in 2010, as well as a former Republican U.S. House member.
The Coalition for Free & Open Elections is attempting to raise funds so that the Vermont ballot access appeal Trudell v Markowitz can go forward. The case challenges the Vermont independent candidate petition deadline. In 2009 the legislature moved it from September to June, a drastic de-liberalization. An independent candidate, Jerry Trudell, who had been on the ballot for U.S. House in 2008 and had polled 10,818 votes, was unable to get on the ballot in 2010 for another attempt because of the new early deadline.
His lawsuit in lower state court lost earlier this year, and he wants to appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court. However, even though his attorney is pro bono, there are costs of approximately $2,500 to pay for the trial transcript. COFOE does not have that much money, but if COFOE receives pledges of as much as $2,000, it can meet this expense. If you are willing to make a conditional pledge for this cause, please e-mail richardwinger@yahoo.com and indicate the amount of your pledge.
The lower court ruling in the Trudell case was flawed. It did not mention any of the six precedents from other states that June petition deadlines are unconstitutionally early. It did not mention the holding in Anderson v Celebrezze, the 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said early petition deadlines for independent presidential candidates are unconstitutional. Instead, it quoted dicta from Storer v Brown that candidates do not have a constitutional right to enter a race late. The Vermont lower state court said Storer v Brown was decided in 1987, when actually it was decided in 1974, before Anderson v Celebrezze was decided.
COFOE greatly appreciates the generous support it has already received over the years, particularly from one individual who recently donated $200, and another individual who donated $100. But, more is needed. If you wish to contribute to COFOE now, without waiting for the results of the drive for pledges, write a check to COFOE and send it to PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147.
