Lawsuit Filed Against Colorado Residency Requirement for Petition Circulators

Posted on by March 16, 2010
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On March 15, several groups that desire to qualify initiatives for the ballot filed a lawsuit against several Colorado laws. The lawsuit attacks the requirement that initiative circulators live in Colorado. It also attacks a Colorado law that says circulators must attend a training class, and still another law that at least 80% of any pay to a circulator must not be connected to how many signatures the circulator obtains.

The case is Independence Institute v Buescher. Thanks to Paul Jacob for the news.

New Jersey State Court Says Maybe Recall is Permitted for Members of Congress

Posted on by March 16, 2010
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On March 16, a New Jersey Superior Court ruled that it is possible that states may provide for recall of members of Congress, and that such a provision would not violate the U.S. Constitution. The case is Committee to Recall Robert Menendez from the Office of U.S. Senator v Wells, A-2254-09T1.

As a result, the court said that the New Jersey Secretary of State should let the recall group have copies of the recall petition. Since the law requires a number of signers equal to 25% of the number of registered voters to get the recall on the ballot, it is very unlikely the group can get enough valid signatures. Over 1,200,000 valid signatures would be required.

This is only the second known decision on whether states may have procedures for recall of members of Congress. An Idaho state court in 1967 said that the U.S. Constitution does not permit recall for Congress.

The New Jersey court did not say that recall is definitely permitted. The decision says, “To summarize, we neither declare the recall provision in our State Constitution as applied to a U.S. Senator definitively valid or invalid.” Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Illinois Ballot Access Reform Bill Suffers a Setback

Posted on by March 16, 2010
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Illinois HB 6214 lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates. On March 15, the House Executive Committee sent it to the Rules Committee. It had already been in the Rules Committee once before, and then it had gone to the Executive Committee. If the Executive Committee had wanted the bill to advance, it would have sent it to the Elections and Campaign Reform Committee. But the Executive Committee didn’t want the bill to advance.

New Hampshire Ballot Access Reform Bill Dies

Posted on by March 16, 2010
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New Hampshire HB 1188, which lowers the number of signatures for candidates to get on the November ballot, has been tabled in the House, even though it had passed the Election Law Committee on February 16. New Hampshire activists are trying to learn what happened to the bill.

The New Hampshire legislature has never made ballot access easier. Every time the laws are changed in New Hampshire, the change is in the direction of greater exclusion. New Hampshire is also one of only three states that has never had a ballot access law declared unconstitutional.

South Carolina Green Party Oral Argument Set in 4th Circuit

Posted on by March 15, 2010
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The Fourth Circuit will hear oral arguments in South Carolina Green Party v South Carolina Election Commission on May 11, at 8:45 a.m. This is the case over whether, when a candidate is nominated at the convention of a ballot-qualified minor party, and then that same candidate also enters a major party primary for the same office, should the first nomination be voided if the candidate fails to obtain the second nomination.

Lawsuits brought by minor parties are pending in U.S. Courts of Appeals, against various election laws of Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.

Lawsuits brought by minor parties or independent candidates are pending in U.S. District Courts in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.