On August 30, a U.S. District Court Judge listened to testimony in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted. Michael Johnston of the Ohio Libertarian Party, testified for the plaintiffs, and a representative of the Secretary of State provided testimony on the other side. The judge indicated he expects to issue a ruling by Friday, September 2. The issue is whether the new Ohio ballot access law is constitutional, and also whether due process prevents the Secretary of State from eliminating the four ballot-qualified minor parties on such short notice. The 2011 session of the legislature had passed a new law to replace the law held unconstitutional in 2006, but the new law still requires as many signatures as the old law, and sets an early February petition deadline for petitions to qualify a party.

Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith and Matthew Vogel have published a 24-page study that shows a link between recidivism and the policy of not permitting ex-felons to register to vote. It can be read at this link. At least 5,300,000 individuals in the United States have lost their voting rights due to the policy of some states of not letting ex-felons register.

The study concludes, “Taken as a whole, our findings indicate that states which permanently disenfranchise ex-felons experience significantly higher rates of repeat offenses than states that do not.” Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Last month, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its election law lawsuit. The due date for the state’s response, August 29, has now passed. The state filed nothing, not even a notice that it is waiving its right to respond. However, there is never any legal requirement that the other side must respond to a cert petition.

The case concerns the state’s behavior in the presidential election of November 2008, when it printed two Libertarian Party presidential candidates on the ballot, one of whom was the party’s nominee, and one of whom was not. Almost all states, other than New Hampshire, provide legal protection for party names, and will not print a party label on the ballot next to the name of a candidate, in a general election, if the party did not nominate that candidate. The case is called Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner, 11-119. The U.S. Supreme Court has this case on its conference for September 23.