On August 23, Bill Redpath, Libertarian Party nominee for U.S. House, Virginia’s 10th district, debated his Democratic Party opponent, Jeff Barnett. See this story. The third candidate in the race, incumbent Republican Frank Wolf, did not participate. Thanks to Melinda Moore for the link. Redpath is somewhat well known nationally because he was the chair of the Libertarian National Committee 2006-2010.
The Vermont legislature this year moved the petition deadline for independent candidates from September to June, a drastic de-liberalization. On August 25, an independent candidate for U.S. House, Jerry Trudell, filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that the deadline is unconstitutional. Vermont holds its primary in August. The case is Trudell v Markowitz, filed in Superior Court in Washington County.
Trudell was on the ballot in 2008 for U.S. House, with the ballot label “Energy Independence.” He polled 10,818 votes, coming in third. He submitted a petition this year shortly before the primary, but the Secretary of State refused to accept it because it was late.
Courts in many states have ruled that independent petition candidate deadlines (for office other than president) may not be earlier than the primary, or perhaps the day before the primary. Such cases have been won in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. In addition, lawsuits filed by independent presidential candidates have also struck down deadlines in Arizona, Massachusetts, and North Carolina, and in all three of those cases, the decision seemed to strike down the deadline for non-presidential independents as well.
There are no cases upholding independent candidate petition deadlines that are earlier than primary day, or the day before the primary, except for one in Illinois in 1986 that has since been overturned, and one in Washington state in which none of the plaintiff-candidates were injured by the deadline.
On August 20, two Republicans filed lawsuits against Kentucky elections officials, and two minor party congressional candidates, alleging that the ballot access petitions for the two candidates don’t really have enough valid signatures. The two plaintiffs are David Caldwell, who says he is a Republican voter, and Cordell Lawrence, vice-chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party.
The two candidates are Edward A. Martin, a Libertarian; and Michael Hansen, a member of the Constitution Party who is using the ballot label “independent.” They are both running for U.S. House in the 3rd district. They are the only two minor party or independent candidates for Congress in Kentucky this year. Kentucky is one of five states with no statewide minor party or independent candidates (the only statewide race is U.S. Senate).
One of the cases is Caldwell v Martin, 10-ci-05867, in Jefferson Circuit Court. The case will be heard August 30.
Florida held a Libertarian Party primary in one state legislative district on August 25. This is believed to be the first minor party primary conducted by Florida elections officials, ever. In the 33rd State House district, Franklin Perez received 49 votes and Ellen Paul received 19 votes. Only registered Libertarians in the district could vote in this primary.
All qualified parties in Florida have been entitled to their own primary since 2007. However, such primaries did not exist in 2008 (except for the Democratic and Republican Parties) because contests are so rare. That is especially true in Florida, which has the nation’s highest filing fees. Thanks to J. W. Smith for the news.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, 3rd circuit, has set out a briefing schedule for Constitution Party, et al v Cortes, 10-3205. The opening brief is due October 19. This is the case that challenges the Pennsylvania system of charging candidates huge fees if they submit a petition that is insufficient. It also challenges the 15% registration threshold for a party to be on the ballot automatically, and the failure of many counties to count write-in votes, and the failure of the state Elections Department to tally the write-ins that do get counted.
The U.S. District Court had ruled that the case is not ripe and that the plaintiffs do not have standing, a finding that is ludicrous, given what has happened this month to all the statewide minor party petitions.
The 3rd circuit had originally proposed an even earlier briefing schedule, but the attorney for the minor parties had to ask for more time, because of the press of other election law litigation he is doing.
