South Carolina Senator Harvey Peeler has introduced a bill to injure independent candidates in 3 ways: (1) independent candidates would need to file a declaration of candidacy in February, when candidates running in primaries also file a declaration; (2) signers could not sign for an independent candidate unless they had been regiistered to vote for 30 days before signing; (3) signers could not sign if they had voted in a party primary that year.

The first two parts of this bill would almost certainly be found unconstitutional. South Carolina passed a law in 1989 requiring independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February, but it was invalidated by the 4th circuit in Cromer v State in 1990. And the US Supreme Court summarily affirmed a case in 1970 that had invalidated a law saying newly-registered voters can’t sign for independent candidates. That case was Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller. Thanks to Scott West for news about the South Carolina bill.

Following the uproar around the report by the Statistical Analysis Center of the Missouri State Highway Patrol on “The Modern Mililtia Movement,” the Missouri Dept. of Public Safety has issued an official letter of apology to Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr.

Here is the text of the letter:

STATE OF MISSOURI
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
March 23, 2009

Rep, Ron Paul
203 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Mr. Rob Barr (sic)
900 Circle 75 Parkway, Suite 1280
Atlanta, Georgia 30339

Mr. Chuck Baldwin
6800 Mobile Highway
Pensacola, Florida 32526

Dear Rep. Paul, Mr. Barr and Mr. Baldwin:

As head of the stale agency responsible for oversight of the Missouri information Analysis Center (MIAC), I want to respond to your letter of March 20, 2009, regarding a report by the MIAC on the militia movement. Portions of that report may be easily construed by readers as offensive to supporters of certain political candidates or to those candidates themselves. I regret that those components were ultimately included in the final report issued by the MIAC.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety places the utmost value on the safety and well being of Missouri’s law enforcement officers –a value I am certain we share with you and your supporters. Officers of the law do the most dangerous job of anyone in our society and regularly put themselves in the path of great danger, bodily harm and death in order to protect innocent citizens. As such, it is our regular practice to provide as much information as we can to law enforcement agencies and their officers so they are fully cognizant of any situational hazard which they may encounter.

Unfortunately, in the course of preparing this report, some regrettable information was included in the report on militia groups in Missouri. While the intent of the report was only to identify certain traits that are sometimes shared by members of militia organizations, this report is too easily misinterpreted as suggesting that militia members may be identified by no other indicator than support for a particular candidate or political organization. That is an undesired and unwarranted outcome. Upon review and reflections, it is the judgment of the Department of Public Safety that the report should have made no reference to supporters of Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin or of any other third-party political organization or candidate.

In recognition of the mistaken inclusion of this information by the MIAC in its February 20, 2009, report on the militia movement, I have ordered that the offending report be edited so as to excise all reference to Ron Paul, Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin and to any third-party political organizations. Additionally, you nay rest assured that the report is not posted on any web site maintained by the State of Missouri.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety regrets any inconvenient or issues caused inadvertently by the unnecessary inclusion of certain components by MIAC in its militia report.

Respectfully,

John M. Britt
Director
Missouri Dept. of Public Safety

The Georgia legislative adjourns April 3. This year, Georgia and Indiana were the only states with truly bad ballot access laws in which no bills to improve the laws were introduced.

Georgia election law bills that probably won’t pass are the National Popular Vote Plan bills (HB 408 and SB 134), and a bill to make it illegal for out-of-staters to participate in voter registration drives (HB 225), and a bill to require all candidates for public office to swear under penalty of perjury that they live in the district that they are running in (SB 35). SB 35 would be unconstitutional as to candidates for the U.S. House.

An idea that probably will pass is requiring people who are registering to vote to submit documents proving that they are U.S. citizens. Both houses of the legislature have passed such a bill (HB 45 and SB 86), although the two bills aren’t identical. A House Committee meets on March 24 to consider the Senate version of the bill.