Another U.S. District Court in Virginia Upholds Residency Requirement for Petitioners

Posted on by September 17, 2010
Reply

On September 17, a second U.S. District Court Judge in Virginia upheld the state’s law that won’t let circulators work if they don’t live in the district.  The case is Libertarian Party of Virginia v Virginia State Board of Elections, 1:10-cv-615.

The decision says the the burden on the candidate that he or she only use in-district residents is “not severe”, but the 27-page opinion complete misses the point that the restriction is severe when applied to the circulator.  There is not a word in the decision about the rights of circulators.  The decision does not even mention the U.S. Supreme Court decision Buckley v American Constitutional Law Foundation until page 23, only four pages from the end.  The U.S. Supreme Court had applied strict scrutiny when it struck down a law banning circulators who aren’t registered voters, but this decision does not mention that the U.S. Supreme Court used strict scrutiny.

The opinion tries to dispose of all the precedents that have struck down residency requirements in other states, by saying those cases only applied to petitions that require more signatures than Virginia does.  But, the decision ignores cases that struck down residency requirements for circulators from Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania that did not require a large number of signatures.  And it does not mention the 9th and 10th circuit cases, striking down residency for circulators, at all.

Vermont Lawsuit Against June Petition Deadline Moves Ahead

Posted on by September 17, 2010
1

Earlier this year, the Vermont legislature moved the independent candidate petition deadline from September to June.  On August 25, an independent candidate for the U.S. House, Jerry Trudell, filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that the new deadline is unconstitutional.  He had submitted his petition a few days before the primary, but the state had refused to accept it, because it was too late.  Vermont held its primary this year on August 24.

On September 15, the state filed its brief in Trudell’s lawsuit, defending the law and asking that the lawsuit be dismissed.  The case is Trudell v Markowitz, Washington County Superior Court, 612-8-10-WN-cv.

Courts have struck down independent candidate petition deadlines (for office other than President), if the deadline was earlier than the primary, in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  The Arkansas decision was summarily affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Also, independent presidential candidates won deadline lawsuits against petition deadlines in Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, and North Carolina, and the state legislatures in those states interpreted those decisions to mean that the old deadline was unconstitutional for all independent candidates, not just presidential independent candidates, and improved the deadlines for all independent candidates.

There are no court precedents upholding a state law that sets the petition deadline for independent candidates before the primary (or the day before the primary), except for a strange 1994 decision from the 9th circuit, concerning Washington state, in which none of the plaintiff-candidates had been harmed by the deadline complained about.  There had been a 1986 precedent from the 7th circuit upholding such an early deadline, but in 2006 the 7th circuit had overruled that old decision.

Minnesota Supreme Court Keeps Independence Party Nominee on Ballot

Posted on by September 16, 2010
1

On September 13, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Bert Pexsa should remain on the November ballot.  He is the Independence Party nominee for State House of Representatives, district 11B.  When he filed his declaration of candidacy, he accidentally wrote “Independent Party” instead of “Independence Party.”  A Republican filed a lawsuit against the Douglas County Auditor, charging that the Auditor should not have placed Pexsa on the ballot because of the error.  But the State Supreme Court disagreed.  See this story.  Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.  The case is Clark v Reddick, A101527.

CBS News Poll Finds 54% of Americans say U.S. Needs a New Major Party

Posted on by September 16, 2010
8

A CBS News Poll finds that 54% of Americans say the U.S. needs a new political party, whereas 42% say two parties is enough.  See this story.  Read down toward the bottom.

Also, the Wall Street Journal has this article by Rhodes Cook, who mulls over the possibility that 2012 will bring a strong general election presidential candidate who is not the nominee of either the Democratic nor Republican Parties.  Ironically, Cook refers to a poll earlier this year on whether the U.S. needs a new major party, when the percentage of people who said “yes” was somewhere between 40% and 50%.  As the top paragraph in this post shows, that statistic is now out of date.  Thanks to ThirdPartyDaily for the link.