In 2009, a group in Daytona Beach, Florida, set out to qualify three separate city initiatives for the ballot. The group decided that its work would be easier if it could use a packet in which all three petitions were grouped together with carbon paper in-between. That would have made it possible for a voter to sign his or her name and address just once, yet effectively sign all three petitions. The city did not approve the idea, so the group sued. On March 9, the case received oral arguments in Circuit Court in Volusia County. The judge did not decide the issue at the hearing, but will issue an opinion fairly soon.

The group was also prepared to let voters who wished to sign one petition, but not all three, sign a separate petition. The web page of the group that is backing the initiatives is here.

Hawaii HB 2397, which moves the primary from September to August, has a hearing in the Senate Judiciary and Government Operations Committee on Friday, March 12, at 9:30 a.m. The bill also moves the deadline for a new party to submit its petition from April to February. The bill doesn’t change the law that says such a petition is due 150 days before the primary. But, when the primary moves, the deadline automatically also moves.

Very early petition deadlines for new parties are unconstitutional. No published opinion has ever upheld a deadline for a new party petition, or other procedure to get a new party on the ballot, if that deadline was earlier than May. It would be desirable if HB 2397 were amended to decrease the 150-day requirement. Hawaii certainly doesn’t need 5 months to check a petition of fewer than 1,000 signatures.

Both Independent Political Report and Free & Equal are publicizing contact information for Oklahoma legislators who are on the conference committee for the ballot access bill, HB 1072. See here for the IPR post. Don’t feel that just because you don’t live in Oklahoma, you shouldn’t communicate with these legislators. The huge ballot access problem in Oklahoma is for President, and every American is injured when presidential candidates can’t get on the ballot in any part of the U.S.

Remember, Oklahoma voters in both the 2004 election, and the 2008 election, either voted Democratic, Republican, or they couldn’t vote at all for President, not even a write-in vote. There is no other state that has imposed such cruel restrictions on its voters in two presidential elections in a row, unless one goes back to Oklahoma itself for the period 1948 through 1964, or Nevada 1928-1944, or South Dakota 1952-1964, or Hawaii 1960-1964. Although Louisiana had bad ballot access laws in the period 1920-1944, at least back then it permitted write-ins.