On April 30, U.S. District Court Judge David Russell upheld Oklahoma’s procedure for independent presidential candidates. Barr v Ziriax, civ-08-730-R. The decision is only eight pages long. The decision does not try to rebut either of the plaintiff’s two most powerful arguments. Oklahoma required 43,913 signatures for an independent presidential candidate in 2008, but didn’t require any signatures for independent candidates for other office. The U.S. Supreme Court had said in Anderson v Celebrezze that states have less interest in keeping independent presidential candidates off their ballot, than in keeping independent candidates for other office off the ballot. Yet the decision does not acknowledge that point.

Also, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that courts are supposed to examine how often a challenged ballot access law is used. No one has qualified under the Oklahoma independent presidential petition procedure since 1992, yet the decision simply says that since the law was upheld (by the same judge) in both 1996 and 2000, the matter is closed. Plaintiffs will appeal to the 10th circuit.

On April 29, David John Anderson of Washington state filed initial paperwork to begin a Referendum petition, to ask the voters if they wish to repeal the National Popular Vote Plan law in that state. He needs 120,577 signatures by July 25, 2009. If his petition succeeds, the voters would vote on the law on November 3, 2009. See this story. Anderson has experience with initiatives; the article says he managed the campaign for I-872 in 2004. I-872 imposed “top-two” on Washington state.

For decades, pollsters have been asking U.S. residents if they consider themselves to be Democrats, Republicans, or independents. Recently, however, two of the biggest polls have added “other” to those choices. An NBC News/WSJ Survey released April 29 finds that 4% of respondents choose the “Other” category. A Washington Post/ABC Poll released April 21 found 5% chose “Other”.

When one examines voter registration data, only 2% of voters are registered as members of parties other than Democratic or Republican.

The full poll results, for the partisan affiliation question, are: NBC News/WSJ, Democrats (including independents who lean Democratic) 42%, Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) 31%, strict independents 19%, “Other” 4%, undecided 4%. For the Washington Post/ABC Poll, the results are Democrats (including independents who lean Democratic) 53%, Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) 37%, independents 4%, “Other” 5%, undecided, less than 1%. Here is a link to the Washington Post/ABC Poll. The partisan affiliation question is at the very end. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.