On November 18, the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission heard a challenge to whether President Obama’s name should remain on the New Hampshire Democratic Party presidential primary ballot. See this story. According to the story, at least two New Hampshire state representatives, Harry Accornero and Susan DeLemus, supported the challenge. However, the Commission voted 5-0 to retain Obama’s name on the ballot.
The story says that the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office advised the Commission that it has no power to evaluate a challenge to a presidential candidate’s ballot status, if the candidate paid the filing fee. The Attorney General’s position seems to agree with a California State Court of Appeals decision of October 25, 2010, in Keyes v Bowen, which said a California Secretary of State has no discretion to evaluate the qualifications of a presidential nominee, and “must (the word is italicized in the opinion) place on the ballot the names of the several political parties’ candidates.”
The challenges to Obama’s ballot status have larger legal implications than are usually realized. If state officials must place the names of presidential candidates on various ballots, that strengthens the precedents established by John Anderson, Robert La Follette, Theodore Roosevelt, Gus Hall, Lyndon LaRouche, and David Duke, over the last hundred years, that just because a presidential candidate appeared on a presidential primary ballot, there is no authority to keep him or her off general election ballots under a different label. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.