Rhode Island Says Moderate Party Has Enough valid Signatures

Posted on by August 16, 2009
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Various Rhode Island town clerks have now determined that the Moderate Party has enough valid signatures to be a qualified party for 2010. UPDATE: see this newspaper story, covering the Moderate Party’s achievement. The Moderate Party is the first party in history to qualify itself by petition in Rhode Island. The party petition procedure has only existed since 1994. In the past, the Green Party and the Reform Party and the Cool Moose Party have also been qualified parties in Rhode Island, but they got that status by running an independent candidate (with party label) for President or Governor and getting 5% of the vote for that candidate.

California Legislature Returns to Work on August 17

Posted on by August 15, 2009
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The California legislature resumes its session on Monday, August 17. Among the bills that will probably move ahead are those to establish the Indirect Initiative, to tell independent voters that they may vote in either the Democratic, Republican, or American Independent primary, to outlaw paying circulators on a per-signature basis, to let a few non-charter cities or counties use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections, and to deregulate the Democratic Party.

Tulsa Initiative for Non-Partisan City Elections Faces Challenge

Posted on by August 15, 2009
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A year ago, a group of Tulsa, Oklahoma voters submitted an initiative petition, hoping to get a public vote on their idea for converting Tulsa elections from partisan elections to non-partisan elections. Tulsa is one of the few cities in Oklahoma that uses partisan city elections. On August 11, John Eagleton, an incumbent city councilmember, challenged the petition. See this story.

ACLU Sues South Carolina Over Fusion Again, This Time Using Voting Rights Act

Posted on by August 14, 2009
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South Carolina is one of the states that must get U.S. Justice Department approval before it changes any election law. On August 14, the ACLU sued South Carolina on behalf of the United Citizens Party, under the Voting Rights Act. During the Green Party litigation in South Carolina, the public and the attorneys learned that in April 2008, South Carolina’s Election Commission had changed its interpretation of a state law that requires a candidate for a partisan office in a primary to file a declaration of candidacy. The old interpretation was that a candidate seeking the nomination of two or more parties only had to file one declaration of candidacy. The new, more restrictive, interpretation is that the candidate must file a declaration of candidacy for each party.

The lawsuit says that South Carolina should have asked for U.S. Justice Department approval for this change, but failed to do so. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news. The new lawsuit is Gray v South Carolina State Election Commission, 3:09-cv-02126.

Fifth Circuit Refuses to Enjoin Public School Ban on Campaign T-Shirts

Posted on by August 13, 2009
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On August 13, the 5th Circuit agreed with a lower court that public schools may prohibit students from wearing T-shirts with a campaign slogan. The student was forbidden in 2007 from wearing a T-shirt to school that said, “John Edwards for President ’08”. The case is Palmer v Waxahachie Independent School District, 08-10903. The school forbade all T-shirts with messages of any kind, so the judges felt the restriction is content-neutral.