Jim Cook has this article at Irregular Times, expressing doubt that Americans Elect, or any other institution or group, is capable of running an Internet election that is secure from hackers.
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On July 21, the Maryland State Board of Elections filed a notice of appeal in Libertarian Party of Maryland v Maryland State Board of Elections, the lawsuit in which the lower court ruled that if election officials can identify any signature on a petition as the signature of a registered voter, then the signature is valid. The lower state court had also put the Libertarian and Green Parties on the 2012 and 2014 ballots.
The Board of Elections did not ask any court to stay the lower court decision, fortunately. Also the Board of Elections has continued to treat the two political parties as ballot-qualified, and recognizes that they do have registered members. It is likely that the State Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) will agree with the lower court, because the State Court of Appeals several months ago ruled that signatures on petitions are valid even if the handwritten signature is illegible. Thanks to Bob Johnston for this news.
The New York special election set for September 13, to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 9th district, will have three candidates on the ballot. The Democratic-Working Families-Independence candidate is David Weprin. The Republican-Conservative candidate is Robert Turner. The Socialist Workers Party candidate is Christopher Hoeppner. Hoeppner got on the ballot by petition, and no one challenged that petition.
The Socialist Workers Party has not had many candidates on the ballot for U.S. House in recent years, but the few it has run have polled relatively high shares of the vote, at least in comparison to the party’s showings historically. In 2010 the SWP had candidates on the ballot in two districts: Iowa’s 3rd district, which includes Des Moines, where Rebecca Williamson received 6,258 votes (2.60%); and New York’s 15th district, which includes Harlem, where Roger Calero received 2,647 votes (2.33%).
On June 23, Congressman Darryl Issa, chair of the House Oversight Committee, introduced HR 2309, the Postal Reform Act of 2011. Among many other changes, it repeals cheap postal rates for Qualified Political Committees. The existing law, 39 USC 3626, gives political parties the same inexpensive third class postal rates that are enjoyed by nonprofit organizations. Existing law, as passed by Congress in 1979, only gave these cheap rates to parties that had polled 25% of the vote for President at the last election. In 1980, a U.S. District Court in Greenberg v Bolger, 497 F Supp 756 (e.d. N.Y.) had declared that the Constitution did not permit the government to discriminate against minor parties relative to major parties, so the cheap rate was extended to all national political parties. In 1983 another U.S. District Court in Spencer v Herdesty, 571 F Supp 444 (s.d.Ohio) had granted injunctive relief to local political parties as well, and in 1985 granted declaratory relief also, 613 F Supp 990.
Because HR 2309 has been referred to Issa’s committee, it is certain that this bill will receive hearings, and will probably advance to the House floor, although it has other committee hurdles first.
Jeffrey Sachs is a well-known economist. He was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, both in 2004 and 2005. He has written many books, including the best-sellers “The End of Poverty” and “Common Wealth.” He has recently written, “America needs a third-party movement to break the hammerlock of the financial elites. Until that happens, the political class and the media conglomerates will continue to spew lies, American militarism will continue to destablize a growing swath of the world, and the country will continue its economic decline.” See his full article here. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.