On September 16, John W. Butts, Democratic nominee for Probate Judge in part of eastern Connecticut, lost his ballot access case in the State Supreme Court. See this story.
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has had all the briefs in Carl Stevenson’s ballot access case since September 8, but it has still not issued a ruling. This is the very interesting case that challenges the in-district residency requirement for circulators for minor party and independent petitions. The in-district residency requirement was held unconstitutional in 2002 in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The law was enjoined permanently. Nevertheless, this year, the Commonwealth Court kept Carl Stevenson, an independent candidate for the legislature, off the ballot because his petition was circulated by someone who didn’t live in his district.
The ACLU is handling the appeal. The State Elections office had submitted an amicus to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, saying that it is neutral, but explaining to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that it is an awkward position, enforcing a law that has been declared void.
On September 17, the West Virginia Republican Party filed a lawsuit in state court, arguing that the Secretary of State should have prepared one ballot for the special election for U.S. Senate, and another ballot for all the other offices. See this story. The case is Republican State Executive Committee v Tennant, in Circuit Court in Kanawha County.
This lawsuit would probably never have been filed, if West Virginia did not have a straight-ticket device. Republicans probably want two ballots because if there is only one ballot, and people see the U.S. Senate race at the top of that ballot, they are probably more likely to use the Democratic Party’s straight-ticket device, because the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, Governor Joe Manchin, is perceived to be more popular than the Democratic Party generally. However, none of these considerations are discussed in the lawsuit.
On September 17, the California Secretary of State released a new voter registration tally, as of September 3. The previous California registration tally had been as of May 24. Between May 24 and September 3, the parties that increased their share of the registration are the Republican, American Independent, and Libertarian Parties. Parties that decreased their share are the Democratic, Green, Peace & Freedom, and Reform Parties. All of these parties are ballot-qualified except for the Reform Party.
The May 24 results had been: Democratic 44.49%, Republican 30.80%, American Independent 2.34%, Green .664%, Libertarian .511%, Peace & Freedom .333+%, Reform .140%. The September 3 results are: Democratic 44.32%, Republican 30.94%, American Independent 2.35%, Green .658%, Libertarian .515%, Peace & Freedom .333-%, Reform .139%.
Independent voters were at 20.17% in both tallies. The number of people registered in other unqualified parties went up, from .559%, to .574%.
The Constitution Party is now a political body in California. This means that it requested elections officials to tally how many people are registered in the Constitution Party, and it identified its state officers. Members of the American Independent Party faction that is loyal to the national Constitution Party registered the name “Constitution Party” as a political body, just to preserve rights to the name, although there is no effort being made to increase the number of voters registered “Constitution.” The Registration tally says the Constitution Party has 72 registrants. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s Report of Registration.
On September 16, the New York State Board of Elections met and determined whether various petitions for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, should be determined valid. In New York, the Board disqualifies such petitions even if no one challenges, if the petitions on their face lack any possibility of containing enough valid signatures.
The only statewide petition invalidated by the Board was the petition of Sam Sloan, who is a Libertarian but who is not the party’s nominee. He had nevertheless submitted a petition with his own name and the party label “Libertarian”, but it did not contain 15,000 signatures.
Therefore, these parties will be on the ballot for statewide office: the five qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, Independence, Conservative, Working Families), followed by these parties: Anti-Prohibition, Freedom, Green, Libertarian, Rent is 2 Damn High, Tea, and Taxpayers. Although the Taxpayers Party is on the ballot now, a lawsuit is pending on whether that petition is valid. The Taxpayers nominee for Governor is Carl Paladino, who is also the Republican nominee.
The Tea Party gubernatorial nominee is Steven Cohn, an attorney from Long Island. His petition had been challenged by allies of Carl Paladino, but the Tea Party petition survived. Cohn is supported by Bobby Kumar, who has been active in the Independence Party and who briefly held himself out last year as national chair of the Reform Party.
The Freedom Party gubernatorial nominee is Charles Barron, who is angry with the Democratic Party because all six of the Democratic Party’s statewide nominees this year are non-Hispanic whites.
In 2006, when New York last held a gubernatorial election, nine parties had statewide nominees. When there are more than eight parties, New York puts two parties in the same party column. In 2006, the Rent is Too Damn High Party and the Socialist Workers Party were squeezed into the same column. This year, all six or seven of the unqualified parties will be squeezed into columns that contain two parties. If there are twelve parties on the ballot, that will be the most crowded general election for statewide office in New York’s history. However, even if there are twelve parties on, there would only be nine gubernatorial candidates on, because the Independence and Working Families Parties are cross-endorsing the Democratic nominee, and the Taxpayers Party is cross-endorsing the Republican nominee.