Recently, two election law bills have been introduced in the West Virginia legislature that are clearly unconstitutional.

Senators Robert Williams (D-Bridgeport) and Robert Plymale (D-Ceredo) have introduced SB 271, to require declared write-in candidates to pay a filing fee. West Virginia previously had a filing fee requirement for write-in candidates, but it was declared unconstitutional in 2000 in Phillips v Hechler, 120 F.Supp.2d 587. The “Phillips” was Howard Phillips, Constitution Party presidential candidate, who had been told his write-ins would not be counted unless he paid the $2,500 filing fee. Phillips then sued and won.

Delegates Ron Fragale, Tim Miley, and Richard Iaquinta have introduced HB 2052, which says that no one who has ever been convicted of a felony in the courts of West Virginia “or any other court” (which would even include foreign courts) may be elected to any public office. This bill, if enacted, would be unconstitutional as applied to federal office. The U.S. Constitution does not permit the states to add to the qualifications that are listed in the U.S. Constitution.

On February 17, Indianapolis city councilmember Edward Coleman publicly announced that he had left the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party. Indianapolis, which has a city-county merged government (Marion County-Indianapolis), has partisan elections. Coleman is one of the 4 at-large members and was last elected in November 2007. He must run for re-election in November 2011.

Indiana does not have registration by party. Therefore, there is no piece of paper that makes Coleman’s switch “official” other than his becoming a dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party, and of course his declaration of candidacy if he runs for re-election in 2011. See this Chicago Tribune story about Coleman’s party switch.

Illinois Representative Mike Boland (D-East Moline) has introduced HB 1012, to ease ballot access for independent candidates and for the nominees of unqualified parties. The bill provides that independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, would need twice as many signatures as are now needed for members of qualified parties to get on a primary ballot.

If the bill were passed, the number of signatures for statewide nominees would drop from 25,000 signatures to 10,000 signatures. For district office, the number would also drop substantially. Because the number of signatures to get on a primary ballot for district office varies according to which party is involved, the bill says the independent requirement would be twice as many signatures as are required for the qualified party with the least number of signatures required.