Delaware Libertarian Appeals Fusion Case to State Supreme Court

Posted on by August 20, 2010
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On August 18, William McVay asked the Delaware Supreme Court to hear his appeal in McVay v Department of Elections for Kent County.  The case number is 528,2010.  McVay is a Libertarian nominee for the legislature, and he will appear on the November ballot.  He is a registered Libertarian.  He had also filed to run for the same office in the Republican primary.  Elections officials refused to let him do that, after the Republican Party complained.  The lower court gave no relief.

There is no law in Delaware that says a candidate must be a member of a party, in order to file to run in its primary.  In 1994, the state let a registered Democrat run in the Republican primary for State Senate, and she was then elected as a Republican.  The only difference between that situation, and McVay’s situation, is that the Republican Party welcomed one “outsider” into its primary, but not the other.

Wyoming Democrats Nominate a Candidate by Write-ins at the Primary

Posted on by August 20, 2010
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On August 17, Wyoming held its primaries.  No one filed to run for Teton County Attorney in the Democratic primary.  However, 109 Democrats cast a write-in vote for Greg Blenkinsop for that office, so he is the party’s nominee.  See this story.

Wyoming is not one of the 35 states that require a write-in candidate to file a declaration of write-in candidacy in advance of any primary or general election, as a condition of counting write-ins for that candidate.  Wyoming law requires a write-in candidate to receive at least 25 write-ins in a primary in order to be nominated.  If the election returns show that anyone received that many write-in votes in a primary, and outpolled any other candidate for the nomination, then elections officials contact the individual and ask whether he or she wants the nomination.  In this case Blenkinsop accepted the nomination, even though he had not initiated the write-in campaign.  Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

Texas Supreme Court Denies Democratic Party Request to Make a Late Nomination in Judicial Race

Posted on by August 20, 2010
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On August 19, the Texas Supreme Court refused to permit the Texas Democratic Party to nominate someone by party meeting for a partisan judicial race in Fort Worth.  No one had filed appeared on the Texas primary ballot in March for that seat.  After the primary, the only candidate running, a Republican, died.  Texas law let the Republican Party replace him with a new nominee, but does not permit other parties to also make a late nomination.  See this story.  The case is In re Candace Taylor, 10-0635.  Thanks to David Prout for the link.

Ohio Democrats Denied Injunctive Relief in Case over Party Labels for Judges

Posted on by August 20, 2010
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On August 19, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott declined to grant injunctive relief to the Ohio Democratic Party, in the lawsuit over whether Ohio is constitutionally required to print party labels on general election ballots for judicial candidates.  Ohio provides that candidates for Judge are selected in partisan primaries.  But Ohio law also says that these party nominees are placed on the November ballot with no party label.  The case is Ohio Council 8 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees v Brunner (the Democratic Party is a co-plaintiff), 1:10-cv-504, southern district.  See this story.  Here is the 18-page order.  Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.

One reason for the denial of injunctive relief was that the case had been filed too late.

Oregon Progressive Party Nominates 5 Congressional Candidates

Posted on by August 20, 2010
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The ballot-qualified Progressive Party of Oregon held a nominating convention on August 19, and nominated five congressional candidates, one nominee for state office, and two for partisan county office.  The nominee for State Office is Walt Brown, who is running for Treasurer.  Brown was also the Socialist Party’s presidential nominee in 2004.

The congressional candidates are:  for U.S. Senate, Rick Staggenborg; for U.S. House, 1st district, Chris Henry; 3rd district, Michael Meo; 4th district, Mike Beilstein; 5th district, Chris Lugo.  The party’s web page is www.progparty.org.

The party first got on the ballot in 2008, but at the time its name was the Peace Party.  In September 2009 it changed its name to the Progressive Party.  The only other ballot-qualified Progressive Party in the U.S. is in Vermont, but the two state parties are not associated with each other.  UPDATE:  see this news story about the party’s nominations.