On June 17, the U.S. Supreme Court issued five opinions, but did not issue its opinion in Doe v Reed, the case from Washington state on whether states should release the names and addresses of petition signers for public viewing. The next opinion day is Monday, June 21.
On June 16, the Louisiana legislature passed HB 292. It sets up a single ballot for congressional candidates, which all voters use. This ballot is used in November. If anyone gets 50% or more of the vote, that person is elected. Otherwise, there is a run-off in December.
This system is somewhat different from the California and Washington state top-two laws. Louisiana does not prevent any candidate for Congress from campaigning during the summer and fall campaign season.
The Louisiana bill does not take effect until 2011.
The Chicago Tribune has this editorial, urging readers to sign the petition for Forrest Claypool, independent candidate for Cook County Assessor. The editorial even explains to readers how to obtain access to a Claypool petition. Thanks to Jeff Trigg for the link.
On June 15, the legal counsel for the Pennsylvania state agency that controls state parks agreed that small groups of petition circulators may work in state parks without first asking for permission. See this ACLU press release, which has links to the correspondence between the ACLU and the state agency. Those who are interested in having the legal citations that the ACLU cited may wish to print out copies of the correspondence. None of the four letters (two from each side) are more than a page or so.
The Green Party contacted the ACLU after its petitioners were stopped while in Point State Park, located in Pittsburgh.
On June 11, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford vetoed HB 3746, which made ballot access more difficult for independent candidates. On June 16, the House then entertained a vote to override his veto. However, the attempt to override the veto failed. The vote was 60-43, but it takes a two-thirds vote to override a veto in South Carolina, as in most states.
HB 3746 required independent candidate petitions to be notarized. It said that newly-registered voters could not sign the petition. It required independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in early June, even though the petition deadline itself (which the bill wasn’t changing) is in mid-July. Governor Sanford is a Republican and both houses of the legislature have Republican majorities.
