On August 12, Tim Fasano, Independent American Party nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada, filed a 39-page brief in the Nevada Supreme Court, arguing that one of his opponents, Tea Party nominee Scott Ashjian, should be removed from the ballot. Thanks to Janine Hansen and Glenn Brown for this news. See this story in the Nevada Appeal, the daily newspaper for Carson City.
Jeff Anderson, an independent candidate for U.S. House in Georgia’s 11th district this year, has announced that he will carry out a strong write-in campaign. The state required him to collect 20,819 valid signatures. He planned the petition two years in advance, and worked with diligence, and did collect 14,000 signatures. That would have been enough to get him on the ballot in any U.S. House district in the nation, outside of North Carolina, Georgia, and perhaps a few overpopulated districts in Illinois and California.
Anderson’s decision to carry out a strong write-in campaign will help the ballot access reform movement in Georgia. Elections officials dread strong write-in campaigns. It costs more money and effort to tally write-in votes than to count votes for candidates whose names are printed on the ballot. Anderson’s webpage is www.jeffanderson2010.com. Thanks to Mary Norwood for this news.
On August 12, U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen heard oral arguments in Greene v Bartlett, the case that challenges the number of signatures needed for an independent candidate for U.S. House. North Carolina has had government-printed ballots since 1901, and no independent for U.S. House has ever qualified. The case is Greene v Bartlett, 5:08-cv-0088. The law requires signatures of 4% of the number of registered voters.
The judge indicated that he expects to issue a ruling by August 20.
On August 11, the Nebraska Secretary of State determined that the Libertarian Party’s petition for party status has enough valid signatures, so the party can now nominate candidates by convention, and they will appear on the November ballot.
Gautam Dutta, the attorney who is suing California over two particularly repressive aspects of the new “top-two” system that will go into effect next year, has this piece in Huffington Post about his lawsuit.
The two aspects of the California system under attack in the lawsuit are: (1) a provision that write-in votes can never be counted in November; (2) a provision that does not permit candidates to list their party on the ballot unless they are members of a qualified party.
