On February 15, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee passed SCR 1043. It would provide that the voters in November 2010 will vote on whether to divert all of the money now earmarked for public funding of campaigns, to public education instead. The funding for the public funding measure has always come mostly from surcharges on traffic fines, parking fines, and other similar sources. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Doe v Reed on April 28, 2010. This is the case from Washington state on whether signatures on petitions are private, or whether the state should be free to release the names and addresses to a group that wants to post the information on a web page.
The brief of the pro-privacy side is due on February 25. The state government’s brief is due on March 25. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
Doe v Reed is the first U.S. Supreme Court ballot access case since 2008. The last ballot access case involved petitions to get on New York state major party primary ballots for the office of Delegate to party judicial nominating conventions. It was New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres, and the court ruled that because the major parties want ballot access for their own primaries to be difficult for that office, that is their right.
The Green Party of New Mexico has started circulating its petition to get itself back on the ballot, and it has 500 signatures already. The party needs 4,151 signatures by April 1.
If New Mexico had a rational election law to determine which parties are on the ballot automatically, that law would already recognize the Green Party. In 2008 the Green Party carried Santa Fe County and Los Alamos County for its candidate for Public Regulation Commission, Rick Lass. Lass polled 43.69% for this partisan race. His vote total, 77,006 votes, was more than 5% of the total vote cast in the entire state. The law defines “major party” to be a group that polled for any of its candidates, a number of votes greater than 5% of the entire vote in the state. The law also requires a “major party” to have registration of at least one-third of 1%, and the Green Party has enough registered members to meet that test as well.
The catch is that before a group can be a “major party”, it must be a “political party”, and a “political party” must have polled one-half of 1% for either President or Governor at either of the last two elections. The Green Party didn’t have a gubernatorial candidate in 2006, and Cynthia McKinney didn’t poll as much as one-half of 1% in 2008.
Parties on the ballot now in New Mexico, besides the two major parties, are the Independent Party and the Constitution Party. The Independent Party is on because it polled over one-half of 1% for president in 2008. The Constitution Party is on because it petitioned in 2008 and parties that petition get ballot status for the next two elections. The Libertarian Party is currently petitioning in New Mexico also.
Kenneth J. Block, who founded the Rhode Island Moderate Party, will be its gubernatorial candidate this year. The party is on the ballot, but it will go off the ballot unless it polls at least 5% for Governor. See this news story.
On February 15, the Minnesota Senate passed SF 2251, which moves the primary from September 14 to August 10. If the bill is signed into law it will take effect this year. It also indirectly moves the deadline for non-presidential independent candidate petitions from July to June, and it also makes the deadline to qualify a new party earlier than it has been.
