The July 30 Arizona Daily Star, Tucson’s daily newspaper, has this story about Americans Elect being a qualified party in Arizona. Americans Elect had turned in its party petition in Arizona on April 13, and in June the Secretary of State had said that the petition is valid. The story is interesting because it reveals that the Arizona petition drive used the services of 30 paid circulators.
On July 29, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 80, which abolishes the February presidential primary, and merges it with the June primary held for other office.
Governor Brown has not acted on certain other election law bills that passed the same day that AB 80 did. They include SB 168, which outlaws paying initiative, referendum and recall circulators per-signature; AB 459, the National Popular Vote Plan bill; and AB 461, which legalizes write-in votes when the voter forgot, or didn’t know, to “X” the box next to the name written in. The Governor must decide what to do with these bills by August 8.
The Maine Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Nader v Democratic National Committee on September 14, at 2 p.m. The case is a tort and request for damages, filed by Ralph Nader against Democratic Party dirty tricks in the 2004 election. The Court will hear arguments over whether a trial should be permitted. Similar lawsuits filed by Nader earlier in federal court were defeated by the federal statute of limitations, but Maine has a six-year statute of limitations so that isn’t a problem for Nader in this case. Maine was one of the states in 2004 in which Democrats tried to keep Nader off the ballot, although they did not succeed in Maine. However, the lawsuit covers activity in many states.
A California Superior Court Judge has tentatively ruled that San Jose’s campaign finance law, barring contributions to candidates for city office during the 17 days before the election, is unconstitutional. See this story.
Every Thursday, the Americans Elect web page posts the number of signatures collected on ballot access petitions to date. The July 28 figure is 1,747,557, up 97,108 from the previous week’s total.
