Linda Ketner said on July 5 that she will not run as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in South Carolina this year. See this story. Ketner was the Democratic nominee for U.S. House in the Charleston district in 2008. Many Democrats had been helping circulate an independent candidate petition for her, because of dissatisfaction with Alvin Greene, who won the Democratic primary for that office last month.
The Texas election law says corporations may donate money to political parties “to defray normal overhead and administrative or operating costs incurred by the party; or to administer a primary election or convention held by the party.”
In 2006, the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Texas polled less than 30% of the total vote cast. The Texas election law actually says that parties should be on the ballot automatically if they either got 2% for Governor at the last gubernatorial election, or 5% for any statewide race at the last election. But imagine if the Texas election law said parties are only on the ballot automatically if they got 30% for Governor at the last gubernatorial election.
Under this imaginary scenario, the Democratic Party would have needed to petition to be on the ballot in both 2008 and 2010. If corporations contributed to the Democratic Party for its hypothetical petition drives in 2008 and 2010, does anyone doubt that the petition drive would be considered an “operating cost”? Obviously, a party can’t “operate” if it isn’t on the ballot. But the Texas press, in its many articles on the subject of whether the Green Party should have been removed from the ballot this year, never actually discusses the “operating cost” phrase in the law.
The hypothetical law requiring a party to poll 30% of the gubernatorial vote in order to be on the ballot automatically is not entirely impossible. Between 1931 and 1937, parties in Florida were only permitted to be on the ballot if they had received 30% of the vote for President at either of the two preceding presidential elections. There is no federal lawsuit precedent invalidating any state’s requirement for what a party must do to be on the ballot automatically. In Jenness v Fortson, the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to think that Georgia’s law (as it existed in 1971), that a party had to poll 20% for Governor, or 20% for President in the entire nation, was acceptable.
| This issue was originally printed on tan paper. |
Table of Contents
Forrest Claypool has this commentary in the Huffington Post. He submitted 90,000 signatures to be on the ballot for Cook County Assessor as an independent. No one challenged his petition. He says that he is the first independent candidate on the ballot for that office since the office was made elective, 78 years ago.
He needed 25,000 signatures. Illinois law requires district and county independent candidates to submit petitions of 5% of the last vote cast, or 25,000, whichever is less. That law has existed since 1931, although the 25,000-signature cap has only existed since 1980. Before 1931, the independent petition for district and county office was 2% of the last vote.
It is probably safe to say that more signatures have been collected for independent candidates in Illinois this year, and also in Georgia this year, than at any time in history.
On July 2, the Texas Supreme Court stayed an order of a lower state court, and gave permission for the Green Party to certify its nominees to the Secretary of State. The Texas Supreme Court wants to hold a full hearing on the issue of whether the party should be on the ballot, but for the meantime, the party is on. See this story. Thanks to Brent McMillen for the link.
