Former Republican Congressman Joe Schwarz says he will say for sure whether he will be an independent candidate this year for Governor of Michigan within a few days. But he says he is leaning in favor. See this story.
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On March 1, the Independent American Party of Nevada (affiliate of the Constitution Party) filed its list of candidates in the 2010 elections with the Secretary of State. The party is running for all four congressional seats, four state executive posts, four State Senate seats, eleven Assembly seats, and county offices in five counties.
Janine Hansen, the IAP nominee in 2008 for State Senate who polled 34.75% in a two-person race, is running in 2010 for Assembly. The 2010 IAP nominee for U.S. Senate is Tim Fasano of Fernley. Thanks to Glenn Brown and Janine Hansen for this news.
On February 23, three Oregon groups filed an amicus curiae brief in Doe v Reed, the case that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear on April 28. The issue is whether petition signatures should be private. The amicus was filed by Common Sense for Oregon, The Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance, and Oregonians in Action.
The amici brief says that petition signers are not private in Oregon, and gives concrete example of how some Oregon petitions have been so controversial that signers were harassed. The brief gives details about a petition to recall three city councilmembers in West Linn, Oregon. Emotions ran so high, some signers later asked that their names be blacked out, before the petition had been submitted, because they were afraid to let it be known that they had signed the recall. Proponents of the recall received late-night threatening phone calls. Finally, even though they believed they had enough valid signatures, they chose not to submit them. The amicus also describes incidents from the Nader independent petition in Oregon in 2004, when signers received vaguely intimidating letters from a law firm, saying that the voter’s name had appeared on the Nader petition, asserting that the Nader petition had many fraudulent signatures, and asking the voter if he or she had really signed the petition.
South Carolina permits a candidate to receive the nomination of more than one political party. South Carolina also requires candidates who are seeking the nomination of any political party (whether a party that nominates by primary, or by convention) to file a declaration of candidacy in March of election years.
In 2008, South Carolina changed its policy on declarations of candidacy, for candidates who are seeking the nomination of more than one political party. In the past, a candidate who was seeking the nomination of more than one party only had to file one declaration of candidacy, listing one party. But in 2008, the Election Commission changed its policy, and said a candidate must file a separate declaration of candidacy for each political party.
However, on March 1, a 3-judge U.S. District Court ruled that South Carolina cannot implement the 2008 change, because it didn’t ask the Voting Rights Section for permission to make the change. South Carolina is one of the states that must get U.S. Justice Department approval before changing an election law or practice. The case is Gray and United Citizens Party of South Carolina v South Carolina State Election Commission, 3:09-2126. Here is the decision.
One of the key facts in this decision is that in 1998, Peter Ashy was the U.S. House nominee of both the Reform Party and the Patriot Party, in South Carolina’s 4th district. The South Carolina Election Commission did not require Ashy to submit two different declarations of candidacy, one for each party.
This outcome will help the Green Party win its South Carolina ballot access case, which is pending in the 4th circuit and which will probably have an oral argument in April. One of the reasons the South Carolina Election Commission kept Eugene Platt off the November 2008 ballot is because he had only filed one declaration of candidacy, although he was seeking the nomination of three parties, Green, Working Families, and Democratic.
This news story says Chautauqua County, New York, has sold its old-fashioned mechanical lever voting machines to a scrap dealer for only $52.47 apiece. One would have thought that the county could have sold them for more money if it had sold them to individuals on e-Bay. Perhaps some of the other New York counties that still must sell their machines will try that. Of course, the machines are heavy, so shipping would be an added cost.