Alaska State Court Says Joe Miller Must Pay Court Costs in Write-in Spelling Lawsuit Case

Posted on by June 25, 2011
5

In November 2010, Alaska election officials determined that Lisa Murkowski had been re-elected to the U.S. Senate on write-in votes. Her Republican opponent, Joe Miller, then filed a lawsuit, arguing that the election tally erroneously included votes for Murkowski that were either invalid, or at least had been cast by voters who should not have been allowed to vote. His lawsuit could not have succeeded on the write-in spelling issue alone, because the tally showed that Murkowski had won even if misspelled write-ins had been discarded. Miller lost the lawsuit.

On June 24, the same state court assessed court costs of $17,000 against Miller. See this story. Miller may appeal. His lawsuit did perform a public service by clarifying the standards for counting write-ins, and Alaska state courts are forbidden to assess court costs against the losing side in lawsuits, if the lawsuit performed a public service.

New Hampshire Court Will Hold Trial on Libertarian Party Ballot Order Lawsuit

Posted on by June 24, 2011
4

On June 20, a New Hampshire state Superior Court Judge said he will hold a bench trial in Blevens v Gardner, the lawsuit filed last year over New Hampshire ballot design. In 2006 the New Hampshire Supreme Court had ruled unanimously in Akins v Secretary of State, 904 A.2d 702, that the state constitution requires that all candidates and all parties have an equal chance for the best position on the general election ballot. The legislature implemented this decision by saying that all party columns should be rotated, so that each column would appear in the best position in part of the state. In 2010, this meant that the Republican column had the best spot in one-third of the state, the Democratic column had the best spot in one-third of the state, and the “Other candidates” column had the best spot in one-third of the state.

However, within the “other candidates” column, Ken Blevens, the 2010 Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate, always appeared below an independent candidate within the same column. No rotation of names was made within that column. Another issue is whether the Libertarian Party should have had its own party column. New Hampshire is the only state in which it is state policy that unqualified parties can never have their own party column. Briefs will be in by October, and the trial will be in January 2012.

Ohio Senate Passes Bill Designed to Give Ohio a Constitutional Ballot Access Law for Minor Parties

Posted on by June 24, 2011
8

On June 23, the Ohio Senate passed HB 194, the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. As mentioned earlier, it moves the primary in presidential years from March to May, and it moves the petition deadline for new party petitions from 120 days before the primary to 90 days before the primary. Although this is obviously better than having a deadline of November of the year before the election, it still gives Ohio an unconstitutionally early petition deadline of early February.

The bill is not entirely through the legislature. The Senate amended some unrelated aspects, and so it must go back to the House for concurrence. That will happen on June 27 at the earliest.

Assuming the bill is signed into law in the next two weeks, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted will probably rule that the new law is valid, and that therefore the four minor parties that were on the ballot in 2008 and 2010 (Constitution, Green, Libertarian, and Socialist) are no longer ballot-qualified. This is not certain, however. A new lawsuit is extremely likely; the new lawsuit will argue that the new law is just as unconstitutional as the old law.

New York Legislature is About to Adjourn, Having Passed Only One Significant Election Law Bill

Posted on by June 23, 2011
2

The New York legislature is expected to adjourn for the year on June 24. The only significant election law bill that passed this year is A8363/S5753, which moves the presidential primary from February to April. The bill to set up a statewide initiative system, S709, never made any headway in the Assembly, although it did pass the Senate. Also, the national popular vote plan bill, S4208, passed the Senate but not the Assembly. Many bills to ease signature requirements for candidates made no progress in either chamber. UPDATE: as of June 24, it is not clear that the legislative session will end this week; it may be continued into next week.