Ralph Nader will speak in Oklahoma City about ballot access, on Wednesday evening, September 8.  The talk is free and open to the public.  It is at the Grand Ballroom at the Oklahoma City Marriott, 3233 NW Expressway.

Oklahoma ballot access for president is so bad, no Oklahoma voter has been permitted to vote for anyone for President in the last 9 years except for the nominees of the two major parties.  Oklahoma is the only state in which no one has ever been allowed to vote for Nader.  Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

Oklahoma ballot access laws relating to independent presidential candidates are supremely irrational, because independent candidates for office other than president are very easy in Oklahoma, and the state has no problem with crowded general election ballots for any partisan office.  Independent candidates don’t need any signatures at all, unless they are running for President, in which case they need 43,880 valid signatures (for 2012).

The Sun-Gazette of Arlington, Virginia, has this article about two lawsuits against the Virginia residency requirement for petitioners.  It is a worthwhile and good article, but it has some errors.

The article mostly focuses on the lawsuit filed by the Libertarian Party, but toward the end it mentions the other lawsuit on the same subject, filed by independent candidate Herb Lux.  However, the article fails to say that the Lux lawsuit is much further along in the legal process.  Also the Lux lawsuit is in federal court, not state court (both lawsuits are in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia).

Also, section 1983 of the U.S. Code does not say anything about election law specifically.  Section 1983 is simply the part of the federal law that permits lawsuits that complain about civil rights violations to be filed in federal court.  Voting rights are a subset of civil rights.  Finally, the story says the Libertarian Party has other lawsuits against residency requirements for circulators in California, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska.  Actually the Kansas lawsuit has already been won, and had been filed by the Constitution Party.  The pending Colorado case was filed by proponents of an initiative, not by the Libertarian Party.

Virginia doesn’t let a circulator work outside his or home congressional district, if circulating for a candidate for Congress.  The story might have mentioned that lawsuits against residency requirements for circulators have already won in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

A U.S. District Court in Colorado will hear Riddle v Ritter on September 18, at 8:30 a.m.  This is the lawsuit that challenges Colorado campaign finance laws that let someone contribute twice as much money to the nominee of a party that nominates by primary, as to an independent candidate.  The specific case was filed by supporters of an independent candidate for the legislature.  However, if it wins, that would also benefit Tom Tancredo, the Constitution Party nominee for Governor.