On March 16, two former officials of the Democratic Party of Oakland County, Michigan, were charged with forgery and related crimes, in connection with last year’s attempt to place a Tea Party on the ballot by petition in that state. See this article. Thanks to Tom Jones for the link. The forgery and associated crimes related not only to the petition, but to various declaration of candidacy forms filed by the party’s supposed nominees.
Here is the rebuttal brief in McComish v Bennett. Here is the rebuttal brief in Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s PAC v Bennett. The U.S. Supreme Court will hold oral arguments in these two cases on Monday, March 28. These are the lawsuits over whether extra public funding for some candidates who have well-financed privately-funded opponents violates the U.S. Constitution.
There are two cases because two different organizations challenged the extra public funding part of the Arizona program. The United States government has intervened in the case in support of the Arizona law, and at the oral argument, the solicitor general of the United States will present arguments, along with attorneys for the state of Arizona. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the second link.
The British Electoral Commission has published an explanation of the upcoming May 5, 2011 vote on Instant-Runoff Voting for members of the House of Commons. Here is the booklet intended for voters in England. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On March 15, the Idaho House State Affairs Committee introduced HB 275, which is another of the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bills. Among the many election law changes is a provision lowering the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate from 1% of the last presidential vote (currently 6,552 signatures) to exactly 1,000 signatures.
No Green Party presidential nominee has ever been on the ballot in Idaho. However, assuming this bill passes, it seems likely that whomever the Green Party nominates for President in 2012 will be able to comply with this requirement. The bill has no direct impact on the Libertarian or Constitution Parties, because they are already ballot-qualified parties.
On March 15, the Tennessee Senate State and Local Government passed SB 935, which makes slight improvements to ballot access for minor parties. It moves the petition deadline for the petition to qualify a new party from March to early April, and deletes the requirement that says the petition says signers are members of the party. See this story. The bill does not lower the number of signatures, 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. For 2012 and 2014, this would be 40,042 valid signatures. The story is wrong to say the bill requires 60,000 signatures.
The story’s author asserts that the bill cures the constitutional defects in Tennessee’s procedure to get a new party on the ballot, but the author is mistaken. The September 2010 decision of a U.S. District Court, invalidating the existing law, emphasized that a petition deadline four months before the primary is unconstitutional, but the bill’s deadline would still be four months before the August primary. Read the part of the decision on pages 33 through 37.
