Florida State Court Judge Removes State Legislature’s Redistricting Measure from November 2010 Ballot

Posted on by July 8, 2010
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Earlier this year, Florida voters put two initiatives on the November 2010 ballot to require non-partisan redistricting for state legislative seats and U.S. House seats.  They will be on the ballot as Amendments 5 and 6.  In response, the state legislature put another redistricting proposal on the ballot, Amendment 7, which would counteract the initiatives.  See this story.

However, on July 8, a lower state court judge removed Amendment 7 from the ballot on the grounds that it is not only too vague to be constitutional, but that it would remove from the Constitution provisions that require districts to be contiguous.  Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.

Kristin Davis Will Use “Anti-Prohibition” Party Label in New York

Posted on by July 8, 2010
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Kristin Davis, candidate for Governor of New York, needs 15,000 signatures to appear on the November 2010 ballot.  Petitioning started in New York on July 6.  Davis will use the partisan label “Anti-Prohibition”.  She had earlier hoped to receive the Libertarian Party nomination, but the Libertarian Party chose Warren Redlich for Governor instead.

If Davis gets as many as 50,000 votes, the “Anti-Prohibition Party” will be ballot-qualified in New York state for the next four years.  She wants to end the prohibition of marijuana, casino gambling, same-sex marriage, and paying for sex.  New York ballots provide for a symbol, or “logo”, on the ballot.  Her logo will be a marijuana leaf.

U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Asks for U.S. Justice Department Advice on Barr Write-in Vote Counting Lawsuit

Posted on by July 8, 2010
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Bob Barr, Libertarian Party nominee for President in 2008, filed as a declared write-in candidate for President in the District of Columbia, because he did not petition to get his name on the ballot.  However, the D.C. Board of Elections refused to tally how many write-in votes he received.  On August 7, 2009, Barr and the Libertarian Party sued the D.C. Board of Elections, arguing that the U.S. Constitution protects the right of voters to have their valid votes counted.  Write-ins for President and all other office are valid in D.C., but the Board says it costs too much money and bother to count them.

On June 30, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote identical letters to both the Attorney General of the United States, and to the U.S. Attorney for D.C., and asked each of them to express the opinion of the United States government about the case.  The judge attached the briefs from both sides to his letter.  He asked for a response by July 30, or at least an indication by July 30 as to whether either official intends to express an opinion in this case.

Ralph Nader Case Against Democratic Party has Hearing in Maine Court on August 6

Posted on by July 8, 2010
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A Superior Court in Maine will hold a hearing in Ralph Nader v The Maine Democratic Party, et al, on August 6.  The issue is whether the national Democratic Party and some other groups violated Nader’s right to run for office in 2004, when it coordinated challenges to his 2004 petition efforts in some two dozen states.

Nader had filed a similar case in 2007 in Virginia and also in the District of Columbia, but the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, ruled that statutes of limitations in those places prevented them from being heard.  The D.C. Circuit said Nader filed those cases a few months too late.

However, Maine has a six-year statute of limitations for cases like this, so Nader essentially re-filed in Maine state court.  The case is in Washington County, macsc-cv-2009-57.  It was filed November 30, 2009.  Maine is one of the states in which the Democrats challenged Nader’s petition in 2004.  That Democratic challenge in Maine in 2004 did not succeed, and Nader did appear on the Maine ballot in 2004.