On June 11, Ralph Nader sued the Federal Election Commission in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. His case is Nader v FEC, 1:10-cv-989. The case was assigned to Judge Henry H. Kennedy, a Clinton appointee. Nader’s complaint is that the FEC never investigated the failure of the Democratic National Committee and its allies to report their expenses when they spent millions of dollars to keep him off the ballot in 2004. Also, certain legal corporations appear to have illegally made large contributions to the Democratic Party, by their legal services to the Democratic Party, in violation of federal campaign law. Here is the 31-page Complaint.

The FEC has broad discretion on whether to investigate a complaint. Nevertheless, the normal FEC procedure when a complaint is filed is to ask the other side to respond. When Nader complained to the FEC, the FEC didn’t even require a response from the Democratic Party or some of the other organizations complained about.

The FEC did nothing about Nader’s complaint for two years, and then dismissed it on the grounds that it had no information before it. Of course, its failure to have any information was due to its own failure to gather any information, or even to attempt to gather such information.

Vic Rawl has filed paperwork necessary to open an investigation into last week’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Rawl had lost that race to Alvin Greene. Rawl is suspicious that the vote-counting equipment may have done a bad job of counting the votes. He notes that the machines were purchased from Louisiana after Louisiana decided not to use them any more, because they do not provide an audit trail. See this story. Thanks to Gene Platt for the link.

On June 10, the Rhode Island legislature passed H.7894. It makes it possible for voters to sign petitions for two or more candidates running for the same office.

For federal and state office, Rhode Island law already lets voters sign for as many candidates for the same office as they wish. The bill says that cities and towns must follow the same policy.

Several Rhode Island towns have their own laws that do not permit voters to sign for more than a single candidate for the same office. But the new bill overrides those restrictive town ordinances. Assuming the Governor signs the bill, that will settle the pending lawsuits Monteiro v City of East Providence (now pending in U.S. District Court) and Fontes v City of Central Falls (now pending in the First Circuit).