On November 26, independent U.S. House candidate Faye Coffield filed her brief in U.S. District Court in Georgia, asking that the Georgia ballot access law for independent candidates for U.S. House be declared unconstitutional. Coffield v Williams, 1:08-cv-2755. The state does not dispute the evidence. No independent candidate for U.S. House has overcome the 5% (of the number of registered voters) petition requirement since 1964. No independent candidate for U.S. House, anywhere in the nation, has ever overcome a petition requirement greater than 12,919 signatures. Yet Georgia law required Coffield to submit almost 15,000 valid signatures.

On the one hand, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s 5% petition requirement in 1971, noting that the 5% petition requirement had been used successfully in both 1966 and 1968 (for the Republican candidate for Governor in 1966, and by George Wallace for president in 1968). On the other hand, in 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court said, “There is no litmus test” to determine if a ballot access law is constitutional or not, but that courts should determine how often a ballot access law is used, to know if it is constitutional. In 2008, three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court again reiterated that old test from 1974, which seems to show the Court still means what it had said in 1974.

The Coffield case is financed by donations to the Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE). COFOE is also helping with challenges to other independent candidate petition requirements for U.S. House, in Illinois, Alabama, and North Carolina. COFOE greatly appreciates donations for these cases. If you wish to join COFOE ($25 minimum annual membership) your dues money is spent entirely on these and similar lawsuits. Also you receive a free subscription to the printed Ballot Access News. The December 1 issue, now in the postal mail to subscribers, has the number of registered voters in each party in each state. It has the presidential vote, by state, for the 9 presidential candidates who were on the ballot in more than three states. It has the 2010 petitioning requirements and deadlines, and shows which parties are ballot-qualified in each state. Please consider joining COFOE. Send a check made out to COFOE, to PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147.

On November 26, the 6th circuit issued an opinion in League of Women Voters v Brunner, no. 06-3335, which has excellent philosophy about the protection given to each voter by the U.S. Constitution. This specific case was filed in 2005, alleging that election administration in Ohio is so flawed, all voters are at risk of being deprived of the right to vote. Problems with inaccurate voter registration rolls, misinformation about where the voter should vote, problems with absentee voting, problems with the vote-counting equipment, all added up to a consistent pattern of failure, according to the plaintiffs. The state had moved to get the case dismissed without a trial. The U.S. District Court had said a trial is warrented. Now the 6th circuit has agreed with the U.S. District Court, and the case will proceed to trial.

The 6th circuit said, “The right to vote is a fundamental right, preservative of all rights. The right to vote includes the right to have one’s vote counted on equal terms with others…The idea that every voter is equal to every other voter in his State, when he casts his ballot in favor of one of several competing candidates, underlies many of our decisions…Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person’s vote over that of another…” These are all quotes from past U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including the December 12, 2000 opinion Bush v Gore. The 6th circuit here says that Bush v Gore can be applied generally.

This year, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Maine, and the District of Columbia, are all refusing to count valid write-in votes cast for presidential candidates who filed declarations of candidacy. Lawsuits ought to be filed against these jurisdictions. If such lawsuits are filed, decisions like this one will be helpful. Read the opinion here; it is only 14 pages long and the important parts start on page eleven.

Alaska has now counted all the votes in the 7th State House district. Incumbent Mike Kelly, a Republican, won by one vote. See this story.