On December 9, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court again refused to hear Ralph Nader’s request for a rehearing in the matter of whether he must pay approximately $80,000 in court costs stemming from the 2004 challenge to his petitions. In the meantime, the constitutional issue of whether states can force candidates to pay for the costs of election administration to this degree is pending in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.
The publication “City Hall”, of New York city, has been running a lengthy series about the Working Families Party of New York state. The fifth edition of the series, carried on December 3, expands the topic to look at Working Families Parties in other states. See it here.
Davenport, Iowa, holds an annual street fair, the Bix Street Fair. At the 2008 street fair, police refused to let Green Party petitioners collect signatures to get Cynthia McKinney on the ballot. The ACLU brought a lawsuit against this policy on June 26, 2009. On December 8, 2009, the city acknowledged that it had been mistaken, and promised to take steps so that its police officers know about the policy.
The city had earlier believed that it could and should prevent petitioning, because the street fair is technically run by a private organization, but the fair is on public property. The case is Bussiere v Davenport, 3:09-cv-101, U.S. District Court, southern district. This case was handled by the ACLU.
The December 9 issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has this story about the pending decision of the U.S. Supreme Court over whether or not to hear Doe v Reed. That is the case over whether the names and addresses of people who sign petitions should be made public or not.
The December 9 issue of The Ventura County Star has this interesting article on how ordinary citizens may apply to be on California’s redistricting commission. That body will draw the boundaries for legislative districts, after the 2010 census. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.
