Arizona Legislator Introduces Bill Requiring Presidential Candidates to Prove Eligibility

Posted on by January 13, 2010
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Arizona Representative Judy Burges (R-Skull Valley) has introduced a bill in the Arizona legislature to keep presidential candidates off the ballot unless they prove that they meet the U.S. Constitutional qualifications. See this story. The bill is not yet on-line and doesn’t have a bill number. At this point it is not apparent if the bill relates to the Arizona presidential primary ballot, or to the general election ballot, or both.

Two apparently similar bills were introduced in the Arizona Senate in 2009, but they made no headway. They were SB 1053 and SB 1158.

No U.S. Supreme Court Election Law-Related News This Week

Posted on by January 13, 2010
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The next news from the U.S. Supreme Court on cases relating to election law will probably be on January 19, when the Court will probably say whether it will hear Doe v Reed, the case on whether petition signatures are private or not. The Court won’t release its opinion in the campaign finance case, Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, until January 20 at the earliest. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news about the next decision day.

Pro-Secession Party Formed for Vermont

Posted on by January 13, 2010
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A group in Vermont has formed the Vermont Independence Day Party, which believes that Vermont should secede from the United States. It plans to place nominees on the 2010 ballot for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and 7 State Senate seats. See this AP story. Thanks to Carter Momberger for the link.

The group did not use the organization method to qualify itself for the 2010 ballot, and it is too late to do that. That method requires showing that the party has town committees in at least ten towns. But, the group is free to qualify the party by petition for each of its individual candidates. They may have their label, “Vermont Independence Party” on the ballot if they wish. The story erroneously says they will be labeled “independent”. The story is also wrong when it says this is the first pro-secession party in any state. The Alaskan Independence Party has been continuously on the ballot in Alaska starting in 1974, although it didn’t become a qualified party until 1983. The Alaskan Independence Party was formed to work for secession, although its activists no longer talk about that goal.

Berkeley Will Use Instant Runoff Voting in 2010 City Elections

Posted on by January 12, 2010
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On January 12, the city manager of Berkeley, California, sent a letter to the city manager of San Leandro, California, indicating that Berkeley will use Instant Runoff Voting for its own city elections this year. There will be no June primary. Instead, the only city election will be in November 2010. The letter was sent to San Leandro because San Leandro is pondering whether to also use IRV this year.

Berkeley and San Leandro are both charter cities, so they are free to decide this matter for their own elections. Cities in California that are not charter cities do not have that freedom. The voters of Berkeley voted in 2006 to use IRV whenever the vote-counting equipment was ready, and a few weeks ago the Secretary of State certified the vote-counting machines used in Alameda County for that purpose. Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro are all in Alameda County.