The Oklahoma legislature adjourned for the year on May 28, and did not pass HB 1072, the ballot access bill, even though the bill had passed both houses last year. Each house passed a different version, so a conference committee had been appointed in February 2010, but it never acted on the bill.
Bob Barr sued Oklahoma over its independent presidential ballot access rules in 2008. He lost in U.S. District Court. He did not appeal because a lobbyist for HB 1072 said the legislature would be more likely to pass the bill if no lawsuit were pending. The independent presidential petition procedure is very vulnerable to a lawsuit. The U.S. Supreme Court said in Anderson v Celebrezze that states have less interest in keeping independent and minor party presidential candidates off their ballots than they do keeping independent and minor party candidates for other office off their ballots. But Oklahoma stands this principle on its head. Independent candidates need no petition at all (just a moderate filing fee), unless they are running for President. If they are running for President, they need over 43,000 valid signatures.
The only reason the law hasn’t been declared unconstitutional so far is that each of the three challenges to that law, in 1996, 2000, and 2008, went to U.S. District Court Judge David Russell, who is a very partisan Republican and someone who refused to even acknowledge the existence of Anderson v Celebrezze in his opinions. Furthermore, because he had upheld the law in 1996 in a case filed by John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party, he would not look at fresh evidence filed in 2000 by Ralph Nader, and by Bob Barr in 2008. Fortunately last year he retired from active service on the federal bench. Expect a new lawsuit in 2011.
