On September 15, the Connecticut Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Butts v Bysiewicz, SC 18663. The issue is whether the Democratic Party’s candidate for Probate Judge, John W. Butts, should be on the ballot. The documents showing him to be the party’s nominee were either lost in the postal mail, or lost in the Secretary of State’s office. See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
The Arizona State Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in City of Tucson v State of Arizona on September 30 at 3 p.m. This is the lawsuit over whether Tucson has a right to retain partisan elections for electing city officials. Tucson is the only city in Arizona that prefers to use partisan elections. Last year the Arizona legislature passed a law requiring all cities to use non-partisan elections. The case is City of Tucson v State of Arizona, 2ca-cv-2101-83.
On September 13, U.S. District Court Judge Terry L. Wooten, a Bush, Jr. appointee, struck down a South Carolina campaign finance law that requires all groups that spend as much as $500 to “influence the outcome” of an election for state office to register as a Political Committee. A Political Committee is required to file recurring certified campaign reports; maintain records of contributions, contributors, and expenditures; comply with various bank account requirements; reject anonymous and cash contributions; and disclose information about contributions and expenditures. The decision is South Carolina Citizens for Life, Inc., v Krawcheck, 4:06-cv-2773.
Groups whose major purpose is to influence elections must still comply with the requirements. The decision relates to organizations that were not created merely to influence the outcome of elections.
The Socialist Equality Party, a national political party headquartered in Michigan, has one candidate in the November 2, 2010 election. He is D’Artagnan Collier, running for Michigan State House, district 9 in Detroit. Here is his web page. Because Michigan does not permit a political party to be ballot-qualified in just a single district (instead it must qualify for the entire state), he is on the ballot as an independent candidate.
The other parties with “Socialist” in their name, that have any candidates on the ballot in partisan races this year, are the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Socialist Action Party. The Party for Socialism and Liberation is not on the ballot under its own name in any state in 2010, but some of its members are Peace & Freedom Party nominees in California this year.
On September 14, the New York Conservative Party, and the New York Working Families Party, jointly filed a lawsuit in federal court over how votes are counted. The problem, which is a new problem in New York state this year, is that some voters inevitably vote for the same candidate twice when that voter sees the name of a preferred candidate who is listed twice on the ballot, once under each party label.
This was not a problem (except for a tiny number of ballots cast on paper absentee votes) until this year. Before this year, votes in New York were almost entirely cast on mechanical voting machines, and the machines physically prevented voters from making that error. Under the new system, the Board credits the vote to the party that is listed first on the ballot. The Democratic and Republican Parties have the first and second lines on the ballot, so they get credit for the vote, not the minor party. The case is Conservative Party of New York et al v New York State Board of Elections, 10cv-6923, southern district. It was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff, a Clinton appointee. Thanks to Joseph Lorenzo Hall for the news. The lawsuit is being handled by the Brennan Center.
