The plaintiffs in Maslow v Board of Elections in the City of New York, who recently lost their lawsuit in the 2nd circuit, will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal. The issue is whether a state may make it illegal for anyone to circulate a petition to get a candidate on a partisan primary ballot unless the circulator is a registered member of the same party.

One of the weaknesses in the state’s position is that the state law makes an exception for an individual who is a Notary Public, or a Commissioner of Deeds. Such a person may circulate petitions to put a candidate on a primary ballot, no matter what party he or she is registered in. The state defends its restriction as a way to protect political parties from unwanted interference from members of another party, but that argument is undercut by the exception for Notaries Public and Commissioners of Deeds.

An interesting aspect of the lawsuit is that one of the plaintiffs who wants to circulate a petition is the wife of one of the candidates. Because the wife is a registered Democrat, she couldn’t circulate petitions for her husband, because he was running in a Republican primary.

William H. Webster supports American Elect, according to this story. Webster was a judge on the 8th circuit between 1973 and 1978. Between 1978 and 1987, he was director of the FBI. From 1987 to 1991, he was director of the CIA. He is the only person who held both of those latter two jobs.

The story also reveals that Americans Elect will submit its Missouri ballot access petition early in 2012.

The text of Pennsylvania SB 1282, which provides that each U.S. House district should elect its own presidential elector, is now available here. The bill is badly worded. It implies that nominees of qualified parties for presidential elector must live in the district they seek to represent, but the bill makes no mention of independent presidential candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties. If the bill passes as written, it will be subject to litigation because it is so unclear.

Current law says that the presidential nominees of qualified parties choose candidates for presidential elector. This already-existing provision is unique to Pennsylvania; no other state tells the presidential nominees themselves that they must choose their candidates for presidential elector. In other states, the state parties choose the candidates for presidential elector.

The bill, on page two, says the presidential nominees of qualified parties “shall designate one nominee from each congressional district.” This suggests that the nominee must live in that district, but does not make this clear.