Rand Paul, son of Congressman Ron Paul, is leading in polls for the Kentucky Republican Senate nomination, according to this story. Rand Paul, like his father, is a friend of the ballot access reform movement. He was active in 1988 when his father was the Libertarian Party nominee, and he is well-informed about unjust ballot access laws. Four states kept Paul off the ballot in 1988: Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, and West Virginia.
The Kentucky primary is on May 18.
The Election Law Journal is an eight-year old quarterly journal. All the articles are peer-reviewed, and the journal is the only scholarly publication that covers the entire spectrum of issues related to election law. It is found in university law libraries and university social science libraries. Anyone may subscribe, but it costs $771 per year.
The most recent issue contains a book review of Theresa Amato’s “Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny”, a 432-page book published last year. The review is by Professor Mark Rush, Professor of Politics and Law and head of the Department of Politics at Washington and Lee University. The review is very favorable to the book. Rush says, “Amato’s call for systemwide electoral reform is unassailable. The structures and the practices that characterize American elections are indefensible…It is clear that the American presidential election system would not survive the scrutiny of the electoral observers we send to other countries…Amato’s argument is powerful and eloquent.” The review concludes by saying that the book is a “piercing, thoughtful, well-written analysis of the contemporary American electoral process.”
Rush also adds, “Her account of Nader’s being shut out of presidential debates in Illinois, banned from the buildings in which they were taking place, and being threatened with arrest if he tried to attend the debate is truly amazing and frightening.”
The Election Law Journal is an eight-year old quarterly journal. All the articles are peer-reviewed, and the journal is the only scholarly publication that covers the entire spectrum of issues related to election law. It is found in university law libraries and university social science libraries. Anyone may subscribe, but it costs $771 per year.
The most recent issue contains a book review of Theresa Amato’s “Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny”, a 432-page book published last year. The review is by Professor Mark Rush, Professor of Politics and Law and head of the Department of Politics at Washington and Lee University. The review is very favorable to the book. Rush says, “Amato’s call for systemwide electoral reform is unassailable. The structures and the practices that characterize American elections are indefensible…It is clear that the American presidential election system would not survive the scrutiny of the electoral observers we send to other countries…Amato’s argument is powerful and eloquent.” The review concludes by saying that the book is a “piercing, thoughtful, well-written analysis of the contemporary American electoral process.”
Rush also adds, “Her account of Nader’s being shut out of presidential debates in Illinois, banned from the buildings in which they were taking place, and being threatened with arrest if he tried to attend the debate is truly amazing and frightening.”
The Libertarian Party of North Dakota is racing to finish its petition for party recognition by the April 9 deadline. The requirement is 7,000 signatures, and the party has more than 4,000.
The petition to recognize a political party has existed in North Dakota since 1939 (prior to that, there were only independent candidate petitions, which permitted the candidate using the independent procedure to choose a party label that was printed on the November ballot next to the candidate’s name). In all the years the North Dakota party petition procedure has existed, no party has ever used it in a midterm year.
Between 1939 and 1980, the party petition was 15,000 signatures, but the 8th circuit ruled in McLain v Meier that the law was too harsh. In 1981 the legislature lowered it to 7,000 signatures.
The most important offices up in North Dakota in 2010 are U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and Secretary of State. If the Libertarian Party gets on the ballot in 2010 and polls as much as 5% for Secretary of State, it will be automatically on the ballot in 2012.
According to this British newspaper story, the Labour Government plans to introduce a bill for an elected House of Lords of 300 members. Elections would use proportional representation. The term would be a maximum of 15 years, with one-third of the seats of the House of Lords being up simultaneously with each general House of Commons election. Thanks to James Hammett for the link.
