Hipolito Fontes filed this brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, on April 14. The case, Fontes v City of Central Falls, concerns the constitutionality of a city ordinance that says voters may sign for only one candidate for any particular office. The U.S. District Court had invalidated the rule last year, and the city is appealing. The brief has 26 pages of text and has some good points about “ballot clutter”, the city’s excuse for its restriction. If Fontes had not won his case before the city’s election last year, the voters would have had only one candidate for Mayor on the ballot.

The First Circuit now has three constitutional ballot access cases pending. The First Circuit includes Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The other two pending cases are both about whether unqualified parties should be permitted to use a stand-in presidential candidate on petitions, and are from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

On April 22, the California Assembly voted to confirm the appointment of State Senator Abel Maldonado to be California’s Lieutenant Governor. See this story. The office is vacant because the man elected to that position in 2006, John Garamendi, resigned last year because he had won a special election to the U.S. House.

Earlier this year, the California Assembly had rejected the Governor’s appointment of Senator Maldonado. Maldonado is a Republican and the sponsor of the bills last year that put Proposition 14 on the June 2010 ballot. Proposition 14 is the “top-two” system.