On February 24, Heidi Fuller filed her opening brief in Fuller v Bowen in the State Court of Appeals, case number C065237. This is the case that challenges the California Secretary of State’s refusal to enforce the State Constitutional requirement that candidates for the legislature must have lived in their district for one year before filing to run.
The British Electoral Commission has published this 15-page book, “Introduction to Registering a Political Party.” Candidates for the House of Commons handle their own ballot access, by submitting 10 signatures and a filing fee (called a “deposit”) of 500 pounds. Therefore, there is no connection between ballot access and whether any particular party is registered. Parties do not register for the purpose of being on the ballot. Instead, parties must register to make it possible for candidates to use the party label of that party.
Registering a political party in Great Britain is simple. The parties must submit a copy of their internal rules for nominating candidates, and must submit quarterly campaign finance reports. Parties can choose any label that is no longer than six words, is not obscene or in poor taste, and which does not contain certain words or phrases, such as “none of the above” or a reference to the royal family. Parties also submit a logo, which appears on the ballot next to the names of that party’s nominees. When parties register, their name is protected, and cannot be used by other groups. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On February 28, the U.S. Supreme Court released an orders list, showing which cases it decided to hear, or not to hear, at its February 24 conference. For the second week in a row, the Court has not yet decided whether to hear Burris v Judge, and/or Quinn v Judge, numbers 10-367 and 10-821. These are the cases over the special U.S. Senate election in Illinois last year. The case has been re-listed for the March 4 conference.
The 7th circuit had ordered Illinois to hold a special election for the Class III U.S. Senate seat, on November 2, 2010. This is the U.S. Senate seat that President Obama had been elected to in 2004. When he resigned from the Senate to become President, the Governor of Illinois had appointed Roland Burris to fill the seat. Some Illinois voters had sued to force the state to hold a special election. The 7th circuit had ruled in favor of a special election, to be held in November 2010, with the winner to take office immediately. But the 7th circuit also refused to let Senator Burris run for the seat he was holding. Instead it ordered that only the candidates who were already on the November 2010 election for the full 6-year term could run in the special election. The Governor of Illinois then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the 7th circuit had been wrong to order a special election. Also Senator Burris had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that if the special election was to be held, the 7th circuit had been wrong to dictate which candidates could run.
On February 25, Ireland held an election for lower house of the national Parliament. These elections use proportional representation, and single transferable vote. See this story for a basic description. Because it takes some time to count ranked-choice ballots, a few of the results are still to be determined, as of February 27. However, no one writing in the Irish press seems surprised or exasperated by this. See this February 27 story about the progress of the count.
Two Massachusetts representatives, James Dwyer (D-Woburn) and Bradley Jones (R-North Reading) have introduced HB 1972, to move the presidential primary from February to June. The bill also moves the primary for other office from September to June. The state would save money by holding only one primary instead of two.
The bill, if enacted, would not affect the deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, to get on the ballot. That deadline would remain in July.
The idea of a Massachusetts presidential primary that late in the year is completely new to that state. Massachusetts has held a presidential primary in every presidential election year starting in 1912, and it has always been in February, March, or April. Thanks to Josh Putnam of Frontloading HQ for this news.
