Two of the most important and interesting election law cases in the nation have been unreasonably delayed by two U.S. Courts of Appeals. The Second Circuit heard arguments in Maslow v Board of Elections in the City of New York, 08-3075, on May 19, 2009, and there is still no decision. That case was argued in front of Judges Peter W. Hall, Debra Ann Livingston, and Chester Stroud. The issue is whether candidate petitions (in primaries) may be circulated by people who aren’t members of that party.

The Sixth Circuit has never scheduled oral arguments in Kurita v The State Primary Board of the Tennessee Democratic Party, 08-6245, even though all the briefs have been filed since May 26, 2009. The issue is whether a political party has the authority to remove the winner of its own primary and substitute the runner-up. The Tennessee Democratic Party refused to certify Rosalind Kurita as its nominee for State Senate in 2008, even though she won the Tennessee Democratic Party primary and even though she was the incumbent. The party said it suspected Republicans had voted in the Democratic primary and that Kurita would not have won without those Republican votes. Tennessee does not have registration by party. Most observers feel the real motivation for the party’s action was that Senator Kurita had voted against her own party when the Senate had chosen officers. The U.S. District Court had upheld the Democratic Party’s decision on October 14, 2008.

Steve Kornacki, Salon’s news editor, has this commentary on the chances of a powerful third force presidential candidate next year.

The column, and similar commentary, usually say that minor party and independent candidates for important office never win. These articles should acknowledge that in the period starting in 1970, there have been seven gubernatorial elections and six U.S. Senate elections in which someone won who was not a major party nominee.

California Governor Jerry Brown’s web page has this area for commenting on a bill that he is about to either sign or veto. Near the top is a section “Please choose your subject” and there are many generic issues listed. Underneath the alphabetical list of generic subjects is a list of bills that are on his desk, to be either signed or vetoed. First are listed the Assembly bills in numerical order, and then the Senate bills, also in numerical order.

Readers of this blog may wish to use this feature to ask him to veto SB 205, which makes it illegal for a voter registration worker to be paid on a per-signature basis. Under California’s new “top-two” law, the only way parties may keep their qualified status is to boost their registration up to approximately 110,000 registered members by November 2014. For the last 40 years, the only way parties in California have boosted their registration for purposes of qualifying for the ballot has been to hire “salespersons” who go out on the street and try to persuade people to register as a member of that particular party. This “sales” job is difficult, much more difficult than persuading someone to sign a petition. Making it illegal for parties that need more registered members to pay people on a “per-sale” job will make it much more expensive to get the job done.

Governor Brown must act on SB 205 by October 1, 2011.