On July 1, Timothy Quinn, an independent candidate for Mayor of Elyria, Ohio, this year, asked the Ohio Supreme Court to put him on the ballot. The county Board of Elections kept him off because he voted in this year’s Democratic primary. Elyria has partisan city elections. See this story.

Ohio has no law saying that independent candidates must not have voted in a major party primary. The only restriction is contained in 3513.04, and it bars independent candidates if that candidate had run for office in a partisan primary that year. But in 2007, the Ohio Secretary of State issued a directive that also bars independent candidates if they voted in a major party primary. Ohio registration forms do not ask voters to choose a party.

On June 30, a California State Court of Appeals construed California’s election code to bar electronic signatures on initiative petitions. Here is the 24-page decision. The case, Ni v Slocum, had been argued on May 10, 2011. The decision depends on the court’s belief that the verb “affix” can’t mean anything but a pen-on-paper signature. Thanks to Mark Scarberry for the link.

In March 2011, a U.S. District Court in Idaho ruled that if the Republican Party doesn’t wish non-members to vote in its primary, it has a freedom of association right to block them from voting in its primary. In response, the legislature then passed a bill, letting all qualified parties decide for themselves who may vote in those parties’ primaries. Although it is widely expected that the Republican Party will pass a bylaw saying only registered Republicans may vote in its primary, the party has not yet formally decided. For the 2012 primary, the new law doesn’t require advance registration with a party, even for parties that do decide to limit their primary to members. Instead, in 2012, a primary voter may decide on the spot (at the polls) whether to affiliate with any particular party.

The lawsuit was Idaho Republican Party v Ysursa. Two groups, the American Independent Movement, and the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, had intervened in the lawsuit before it was decided. After the decision came out, those two intervenors appealed the U.S. District Court decision to the 9th circuit. However, the Republican Party has filed a motion to dismiss their appeal, on the grounds that since the law has changed since the decision came out, the case is moot. It is likely that the 9th circuit will decide fairly quickly whether the intervenors may appeal. The American Independent Movement is a group within Idaho. The Committee for a Unified Independent Party uses that name in court, but nowadays it goes by its newer name, Independent Voting. It is composed primarily of people who were once leaders of the New Alliance Party.