On March 8, San Gabriel, California, held a city council election. John Harrington, a registered Libertarian for the past 17 years, was elected. Two seats were up, and four candidates ran. Harrington received more votes than any other person running for city council. San Gabriel is in eastern Los Angeles County and has approximately 40,000 residents. All city elections in California are non-partisan.
On April 8, the Montana legislature passed HB 91, the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. It does not make any changes to the ballot access laws, except in a very narrow way. It makes it possible for presidential nominees of political parties to withdraw from the November ballot. This provision is in the bill because in 2008, the Constitution Party of Montana had nominated Ron Paul for President. At the time, the Secretary of State had no alternative but to print Paul’s name on the ballot, even though Paul didn’t want to be on the ballot.
The lawsuit against Montana’s March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates continues to move along. On April 8, both sides submitted additional paperwork to the U.S. District Court that is hearing the lawsuit against that deadline. The Secretary of State probably could have mooted this lawsuit, which is called Kelly v McCulloch, by asking the legislature to move the deadline back to June (the deadline had been in June until 2007, when it had been moved to March). But, the Secretary of State, Linda McCulloch, preferred not to suggest that change, so the lawsuit continues.
On April 8, the Hawaii Senate passed HB 638 on second reading. Third reading will be early next week. The bill had had already passed the House. It provides for Instant Runoff Voting in special elections.
The 8th Circuit will hold oral arguments in Libertarian Party of North Dakota v Jaeger on Wednesday, May 11, in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is the case that challenges the North Dakota law that says no party can nominate any candidates in its primary, for state legislature, unless between 10% and 15% of all the voters who turn out to vote in the primaries choose that particular party’s primary ballot. The law specifically requires 1% of the population (including children and aliens), but turnout is so low in North Dakota primaries, especially in midterm years, that 1% of the population works out to between 10% and 15% of the voters who actually vote.
The law is so stringent, no minor party candidate for the legislature has appeared on the November ballot since 1976. Nevertheless, the U.S. District Court upheld the law last year, after refusing to hold oral arguments, and issuing a ruling the very day after the last brief had been filed.
North Dakota is the only state remaining that has a minimum vote requirement for candidates in partisan primaries, except that Hawaii imposes a primary vote test as well; but the Hawaii vote test only applies to independent candidates, not party candidates.
On April 8, Ralph Nader’s attorneys filed this 34-page brief in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, in Nader v Maine Democratic Party, Democratic National Committee, et al. This is Nader’s lawsuit, suing the Democratic Party for its actions to keep him off ballots in the 2004 presidential election. The lower court in Maine had not ruled on the substance of the lawsuit, but had found procedural reasons for not permitting a trial.
