9th Circuit Tells Washington Secretary of State to Release Names and Addresses of Petition Signers

Posted on by October 15, 2009
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On October 15, the 9th Circuit issued a one-paragraph order in Doe v Reed, 09-35818, giving the Washington Secretary of State’s office authority to release the names and addresses of people who signed the R-71 Referendum petition. The order says, “The court, after consideration of the record and briefs of the parties, and oral argument, has determined that the district court’s Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction, filed September 10, 2009, relies on an incorrect legal standard and, therefore, must be reversed.”

The order also says that an opinion setting forth the reasons for the court’s reversal shall be issued later. The Secretary of State still can’t release the names this week, however, because of a state court order issued yesterday. Also it is possible the people who filed the lawsuit will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the 9th circuit’s order. Thanks to Sam Harley for this news. See this story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

D.C. Board of Elections Tells Court Write-ins Are Too Much Bother to Count

Posted on by October 15, 2009
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The District of Columbia Board of Elections has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections, pending in federal court, 09-cv-1676. The issue is whether the Board should be required to count the write-ins for Bob Barr for president in last November’s election. The ballots still exist. Here is the Board’s 21-page brief.

The Board’s brief says, “Because tabulation of all write-in votes would need to be done by hand, the increased personal costs would be a substantial burden on the Board’s limited resources.” Also, the Board says, “Requiring the Board to tabulate all write-in results would cause a significant delay in the reporting of election results because all write-in votes need to be tabulated by hand.” The Board does not give any other governmental interest in refusing to tally the votes for declared write-in presidential candidates.

The Board seems to assume that if the Libertarian Party won the lawsuit, all write-ins would need to be tallied. But the Libertarian Party is only asking that write-ins for declared write-in candidates be counted. Bob Barr was the only person who filed a slate of presidential elector candidates and a write-in declaration of candidacy last year.

The U.S. Supreme Court said in Dunn v Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330 (1972), “The right to vote cannot be abridged to save the state money or inconvenience.” In Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, 479 U.S. 208 (1986), the Court said, “The cost oof administering the election system is not a sufficient basis here for infringing appellees’ First Amendment rights.” And in Gray v Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, the Court said, “Every voter’s vote is entitled to be counted once. It must be correctly counted and reported.”

New York Democratic Nominees for Supreme Court Justice Remain on November Ballot

Posted on by October 14, 2009
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On October 13, the person who had challenged the ballot placement of Republican nominees for New York Supreme Court Justice in the 5th district (the Syracuse area) dropped that challenge. The challenger had filed the challenge, based on supposed irregulaties in the Republican Party convention that had nominated them. See this newspaper story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link. The newspaper reporter was unable to find out why the challenge had been withdrawn.

New Nevada Registration Data Shows Slightly Higher Percentages for Minor Parties, Independents

Posted on by October 14, 2009
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Nevada is one of the states that issues updated voter registration data every month. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s registration data. Independent Political Report noticed that the Las Vegas Sun recently ran an article about the impressive share of the voters in Nevada who are registered in the Independent American Party, the Nevada state affiliate of the Constitution Party. Thanks to Independent Political Report for this link.

The Secretary of State purged the voter registration rolls during January 2009, so the newspaper appropriately started with a comparison of the February 2009 data with the September 2009 data.

In February 2009, the percentages (for active voters) were: Democratic 43.76%, Republican 35.81%, independents 15.24%, Independent American Party 4.00%, Libertarian .56%, Green .275%, unqualified parties .35%.

In September 2009, the percentages (again, for active voters) are: Democratic 43.72%, Republican 35.58%, independents 15.40%, Independent American Party 4.10%, Libertarian .58%, Green .278%, unqualified parties .35%.

9th Circuit Panel Seems Unlikely to Rule in Favor of Petition Secrecy

Posted on by October 14, 2009
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On October 14, a 3-judge panel of the 9th circuit heard arguments in Doe v Reed, the case over whether the names and addresses of people who sign referendum petitions should be made public, or whether the Constitution protects the privacy of petition signers. The specific case arose in the R-71 battle. This year, the Washington state legislature passed a bill to provide for civil unions for same-sex couples. Because Washington state has the Referendum process, opponents of the bill filed a petition to call for a vote on the law, so that it will not go into effect unless the voters approve. The election is on November 3, 2009, and the measure is Referendum 71 on the ballot.

The panel consisted of Judges Harry Pregerson (a Carter appointee), A. Wallace Tashima (a Clinton appointee), and N. Randy Smith (a Bush, Jr. appointee). Judges Pregerson and Tashima seemed to feel there is no need for privacy for this particular petition. Judge Tashima asked, “What are the signers afraid of?” He also asked, “Can we take judicial notice of the fact that the plaintiffs represent people who are in the majority? This isn’t a persecuted minority.” The attorney for the plaintiffs said, “We don’t know yet which side is in the majority.” But one of the judges responded by saying, “You’ve won all the elections around the country so far.” Judge Tashima also said that confrontation is just part of politics.

In the meantime, also on October 14, a state court in Washington state ruled that, pending the decision from the 9th circuit, all petitions will be kept secret, not just the R-71 petitions. Judge Richard Hicks of Thurston County Superior Court made this decision, in a lawsuit filed by Tim Eyman, who has sponsored many initiatives in Washington.