According to this story, one candidate for city office in Bayonne, New Jersey, has accused his rival of deliberately making a copy of his already-submitted ballot access petition, and then canvassing the same voters who had signed, urging them to sign for another candidate for the same office. If voters sign for two candidates for the same office, and there is only one seat to be filled, then both signatures are invalid.

As the news spread, yet another candidate, for another office, who had already submitted his petition, retrieved it. He said he would turn it in again, just before the deadline, to make sure that his opponent doesn’t attempt the same tactic.

Laws that make it illegal for voters to sign for two opposing candidates cause this type of mischief. If the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Doe v Reed that ballot access petitions are not public, that would also alleviate this problem to a certain extent.

On March 18, seven California cities, including San Francisco, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Sacramento to remove Proposition 16 from the June 8, 2010 statewide ballot. See this story. Proposition 16 has little to do with election law, but this news is interesting because it shows the extent to which the California June 2010 ballot is still unsettled. Proposition 16 would provide that if a city switches to public power, the voters of that city must approve the idea with a two-thirds popular vote.

The lawsuit is Modesto Irrigation District v Bowen. UPDATE: here is the complaint, which says, “The initiative is so permeated with misinformation that it prevents a reasonable voter from making informed choices and therefore constitutes a violation of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.”