On December 4, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bianco heard oral arguments in MacKay v Crews, a lawsuit involving the identity of the national Reform Party officers. The case was heard in Central Islip, Long Island, New York. He will accept further written evidence and arguments, which must be submitted by December 8. He promised to rule by December 11.
From Independent Political Report comes this news, that Nick Taiber was elected to the City Council of Cedar Falls, Iowa, on December 1. He is a member of the Iowa Libertarian Party executive committee, and he is a registered Libertarian.
Cedar Falls has a population of 36,000, and is home to the University of Northern Iowa. All city elections in Iowa are non-partisan.
On December 4, the results of an exit poll in Hendersonville, North Carolina, were released. Hendersonville has used Instant Runoff Voting for its last two city elections. The State Board of Elections funded an exit poll to ask Hendersonville voters if they like IRV or not. Here are the results. One link within the press release lead to the full results. Another leads to the questionaire. The results are based on responses from 322 voters. Henderson is in the western end of the state.
On December 3, the 5th circuit heard oral arguments in Libertarian Party v Dardenne, the case over whether the Louisiana Secretary of State should have accepted the party’s presidential elector paperwork last year. The statutory deadline was September 2, but the Republican Party missed that deadline, not because of any hurricane, but because the party was unable to fill out the paperwork until the national convention had nominated John McCain and Sarah Palin, which was done on September 4. There is a factual dispute as to whether the Republicans submitted the paperwork on September 5 or September 8.
The Secretary of State extended the deadline through September 8, but the Libertarian paperwork wasn’t submitted until September 10. The Governor had issued a proclamation easing deadlines until September 12, but the Secretary of State does not agree that the gubernatorial proclamation relates to this type of deadline.
At the hearing, Judge Catherine Haynes (a Bush, Jr. appointee) seemed scornful of the Libertarian Party’s arguments, but Judge James Dennis (a Clinton appointee) asked questions that seemed supportive. Judge Carl Stewart, the third judge, did not ask any questions. Anyone can hear the 30 minute oral argument by going to the 5th circuit’s webpage here. Choose “Libertarian Party v Dardenne”.
If there are any disputed facts, precedent demands that a plaintiff must be granted a trial. There has not yet been a trial in this case. The attorney for the state made much out of the fact that Gloria LaRiva was able to file her presidential elector paperwork in person on September 2. However, LaRiva has told Richard Winger that on that day, the entire office building which houses the Secretary of State’s office was dark, as though the electricity was off. No building personnel were on duty in the lobby. The building appeared deserted. But, the doors weren’t locked. She made her way upstairs and found that someone was available to receive her paperwork.
At the oral argument, the attorney for the Libertarian Party said that when elections officials are confronted with instances at which the major parties were late with presidential elector paperwork, they always excuse the error. He did not list specific instances. However, it is well-documented in court decisions that either the Republicans, or the Democrats, or both, were late in Texas in 2008, and in Indiana in 1988, and in Iowa in 1964. There are probably other instances, such as Florida 2000, but they are not entirely documented.
On December 4, the Harvard Law Record carried this short article by Theresa Amato about the need for ballot access reform. Amato is the author of the recently-published Grand Illusion, The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny. She was also Ralph Nader’s campaign manager in 2000 and 2004.
The article advocates that a federal standard for ballot access in federal elections be passed. Bills to establish such a standard have been introduced in nine sessions of Congress, although no such bill is pending in the current session of Congress. The lead authors have been, first John Conyers, then Tim Penny, and most recently Ron Paul.
The article notes that the very same publication, the Harvard Law Record, carried a somewhat similar article by Ralph Nader in 1958. Thanks to D. Eris of Politeaparty.blogspot.com for the link. Anyone reads the article carefully may be surprised that Amato says Nader announced his presidential candidacy in three elections, which she lists as 2000, 2004, and 2008. She does not include 1996 because, even though Nader was the presidential candidate of the Green Party in 1996, he did not raise or spend as much as $5,000, so under the Federal Election Commission’s definition of “candidate”, for FEC purposes he was not a candidate in 1996. Of course most people wouldn’t use the FEC’s constrained definition and would say he was a candidate in 1996; he placed fourth, even though he was only on the ballot in 23 states in 1996.
