On Sunday, April 26, the New Jersey Libertarian Party nominated Ken Kaplan for Governor. Kaplan had also run for that position as a Libertarian in 1993.
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Tennessee has County Election Commissions in every county, which consist of 5 members. Three members are supposed to be members of the party that has a majority in the State House of Representatives, and two are supposed to be members of parties that have members in the House but which are in the minority. Last November, Republicans gained a majority in the State House for the first time, so the counties are in the process of replacing Democratic election administrators with Republican administrators. Here in an article from the Greeneville Sun of April 26, on how the process worked in Greene County.
Last year, a Minnesota convict, Leonard Richards, won declaratory relief in Minnesota state court that he should have been allowed to file for the Democratic nomination for U.S. House in 2006. The U.S. Constitution protects the right of anyone to run for Congress who meets the Constitutional qualifications, yet Richards had not been allowed to run because prison officials had refused to deliver the declaration of candidacy forms. This story had been covered in the March 1, 2008 printed Ballot Access News.
Now, Richards has been awarded his court costs, since he was the prevailing party. On March 16, the Minnesota District Court, Rice County, awarded Richards $265 to compensate him for the money he spent filing the lawsuit and serving the opposition. Richards v Ritchie, 66-cv-06-1517.
Illinois HB 723 passed the House on April 2. It makes it more difficult for qualified parties to nominate candidates. Current Illinois law lets qualified parties choose someone by committee, if no one ran in that party’s primary for that particular office. The bill says committees can only nominate candidates after the primary if that candidate submits a petition signed by 5% of the last vote cast for that office in the general election (or 25,000 signatures, whichever is less).
The bill will be heard in the Senate Elections Committee on April 28 at 1 p.m. in room 400 of the Capitol.
On April 22, the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee passed HB 3746, which would make it harder for independent candidates to get on the ballot. It would not let primary voters sign for an independent candidate; it would not let newly-registered voters sign for an independent candidate; and it would require independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February of election years.
The U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a 3-judge federal court decision from New York in 1970, striking down a law that newly-registered voters couldn’t sign for independent candidates. And the 4th circuit (which includes South Carolina) struck down a February deadline for independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy back in 1990, in Cromer v State, 917 F 2d 819. As to the restriction on primary signers signing for an independent, that would probably be held unconstitutional also. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that ballot access laws that are so difficult that they almost never get used, are probably unconstitutional. South Carolina has never had an independent candidate for U.S. House or U.S. Senate on a government-printed ballot. The state requires 10,000 signatures for an independent candidate for U.S. House.
The sponsor of HB 3746 is Rep. Alan Clemmons (R-Myrtle Beach). An identical bill, SB 590, is pending in the Senate.