In June 2009, the Nova Scotia Green Party was threatened with losing its status as a qualified party, because it had not submitted its campaign finance reports. However, Nova Scotia election authorities said on August 5 that the party can still save its status as long as it submits the reports by August 18.
On August 4, U.S. District Court Judge Judith Herrera, a Bush Jr. appointee, ruled that New Mexico state officials cannot require a group to register as a “political committee”, just because it sent out mailings to voters criticizing several state legislators. The decision is New Mexico Youth Organized v Herrera, 08-1156, and is 30 pages.
New Mexico law says that any group that spends $500 on partisan political communications is a “political committee”, but the judge ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court has already established that a “political committee” is something that is either controlled by a candidate, or which has as its major purpose the nomination or election of a candidate.
Furthermore, the opinion says that the literature mailed by New Mexico Youth Organized is not unambiguously related to any campaign, just because it criticized the incumbents and because it was mailed in an election year.
The Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has finished preparing a massive 252-page bill of election law revisions. The draft includes a substantial easing of ballot access for new and previously unqualified political parties. It lowers the petition to one-fourth of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. It lowers the vote test to 1% of any statewide race at either of the last two elections.
The bill won’t have a bill number until it is formally introduced. Whether or not the bill goes into effect before the 2010 election is not determined yet. That depends on how fast the bill becomes law (assuming it does pass). The legislature is not sitting until September, but it is technically considered to be in session now, for the purpose of introducing bills. Thanks to Kevin Knedler for this news.
Alaska releases updated information on the number of registered voters in each party every month. The August 4 tally is available here.
The only parties which gained between the July 3 tally and the August 3 tally are the Libertarian and Alaskan Independence Parties. The percentages are as follows, with the July tally listed first and the August tally second:
Republican: 26.08%, 26.06%
Democratic: 15.66%, 15.64%
Alaskan Indpc: 2.76%, 2.77%
Libertarian: 1.33%, 1.45%
Rep. Moderate: .65%, .64%
Green: .54%, .53%
Veterans: .38%, .38%
Independents: 52.61%, 52.54%
Parties need 9,786 registrants by the spring of 2010 in order to be recognized for the 2010 election. The only parties that have that many are Republican, Democratic and Alaskan Independence, although those three parties don’t actually need any number of registrants because all three of them met the alternate vote test in 2008. Libertarians currently have 6,956, so still need another 2,830. The formula to be on the ballot in a midterm year is to have registration of 3% of the last presidential vote. That formula was made more severe in 2004; before then, it was always 3% of the last gubernatorial vote. If that were still the registration test, the number of registrations needed would only be 7,119.
Idaho is one of the thirteen states that gives state income taxpayers a chance to send a small donation to a political party, via the tax return. The tax returns that have come in this spring reveal that the 4 qualified parties will receive these amounts: Democratic $18,278; Republican $13,378; Libertarian $1,456; Constitution $1,208.
This is the third year in a row in which the Idaho Democratic Party has received more than the Idaho Republican Party. By contrast, in all years 2000 through 2006, Republicans received more.
Figures for all 13 states’ income tax returns will be in a future paper issue of Ballot Access News (probably the September 1 2009 issue).
