North Carolina Supreme Court Hears Ballot Access Case

Posted on by September 9, 2010
6

On September 9, the North Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Libertarian Party of North Carolina v State Board of Elections, the case that challenges many North Carolina election laws that are hostile to minor parties.  The hearing seemed to go well for the plaintiffs, the Libertarian Party and the Green Party.  Five of the seven justices asked questions.  The questions showed that the judges are very familiar with the details of the case.

On Justice asked the attorney for the state whether ballot access is a fundamental right.  The attorney for the state replied that voting is a fundamental right.  The justice responded, saying that wasn’t his question, and he wanted the attorney for the state to respond to whether ballot access is a fundamental right.  The attorney for the state then agreed that it is a fundamental right.

The hearing was an hour long.  Approximately 30 people were in the audience.  The justices were aware of the history of North Carolina’s ballot access requirements for new and minor parties.  They knew that the requirement had been exactly 10,000 signatures between 1929 and 1981.  They knew that it had been lowered to 5,000 signatures in 1981, with the proviso that people who signed a minor party petition had their voter registration automatically converted to show them members of the party whose petition they had signed (that law had been struck down in federal court in 1982 in a lawsuit filed by the Socialist Workers Party).  The justices knew that the legislature then imposed the current petition requirement, 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, which now equals 85,379 valid signatures.

The state’s biggest argument has always been that having as many as three minor parties on the ballot, which occurred in 1996, caused crowded ballots, because North Carolina elects 10 statewide state offices in presidential years.  With that many offices on the ballot, and some races having as many as five candidates on the ballot, some counties had to print the ballot on several cards instead of just one card, and that caused voters to take longer in the voting booth.  But the technology in those counties in 1996 no longer is used in North Carolina, and the justices knew that also.  A decision will probably be issued in the next four months.

Ralph Nader Speaks in Oklahoma About Ballot Access

Posted on by September 9, 2010
3

On September 8, Ralph Nader spoke in Oklahoma City about Oklahoma’s ballot access law.  See this story.  The audience included 360 people.  Oklahoma is the only state in which no one has ever been allowed to vote for Nader.  Although he never appeared on the ballot in Georgia, Indiana, and North Carolina as well, at least those three states tallied write-ins for him.  Oklahoma bans write-ins.

Senator Lisa Murkowski Weighing Write-in Campaign

Posted on by September 8, 2010
7

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski is considering whether to be a write-in candidate for re-election in November.  See this story.  Contrary to other published reports, this article correctly notes that voters need not spell “Murkowski” perfectly.  Alaska, and almost all other states, use the “voter intent” standard to determine whether a write-in should count.

Murkowski would also have an advantage over write-in candidates in most other states, because all of Alaska’s vote-counting equipment is uniform across the state.  Any serious write-in candidate for statewide office always needs to advertise, to explain to voters how to cast a write-in vote, but that job is much simpler when the ballot looks the same everywhere in that state.

The largest write-in vote cast for a U.S. Senate general election in Alaska was in 1968, when incumbent U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening lost the Democratic primary but carried on as a write-in in the November election.  The vote in that election was:  Mike Gravel, Democratic nominee, 36,527; Elmer Rasmuson, Republican nominee, 30,286; Gruening, write-in, 14,118 (17.4%).  Alaskans also cast substantial numbers of write-in votes in November 1998 in the gubernatorial race.  The vote in that election was:  Tony Knowles, Democrat, 112,879; John Lindauer, Republican, 39,331; Ray Metcalfe, Republican Moderate Party, 13,540; Erica Jacobsson, Green, 6,618; Sylvia Sullivan, Alaskan Independence, 4,238; and 43,571 scattered write-ins, most for Robin Taylor.

Alaskan Independence Party Still Needs a Lieutenant Governor Nominee

Posted on by September 8, 2010
1

On September 7, the Alaskan Independence Party pick for Lieutenant Governor, Norm Olson, withdrew.  He said he was only interested in running for Lieutenant Governor with Bill Walker, who had last month lost the Republican gubernatorial primary.  Because the Alaskan Independence Party decided to stick with its original gubernatorial candidate (Don Wright), Olson is declining.  The party has until September 15 to find someone else.  See this story.