Some Oregon activists who care about minor parties and independent candidates have created this webpage, to assist the campaign against the “top-two” initiative on the Oregon ballot.
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On September 23, the Texas Supreme Court issued a one-sentence order in the case called “In re Bob Barr, Wayne Allyn Root and the Libertarian Party of Texas.” All it says is “The following petition for writ of mandamus is denied.” Presumably there will be an opinion to follow. Case number 08-0761. The case had been filed to obtain the Secretary of State’s explanation for ignoring statutory deadlines for the Democratic and Republican Parties to certify their national tickets. A side benefit of filing the lawsuit had been to create a record (for historial purposes) that the two major parties were indeed late this year in Texas. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this story.
The New York Times of September 23 has this interview with Ralph Nader, written by Katherine Seelye. The title is “Nader, Drawing Votes – from McCain.” The article itself does not actually present the data to support its title, but notes that Nader makes this allegation and accepts it. UPDATE: the New York Times piece has been revised and improved on this point; the link above goes to the updated Times article. Thanks very much to reporter Katherine Seelye for pointing this out. Seelye is a heroine of the ballot access movement. In 1997, she publicized in the Times the story of how the Pennsylvania legislature had quadupled the number of signatures, by amending another election law bill in a 3 a.m. session. The publicity engendered by her story lead to Governor Tom Ridge vetoing that repressive election law bill.
The article says Nader only received one-third of the vote for president in 2004. Actually, he got .381%. It would be more accurate to say he got .4%, or possibly to say he got three-eighths of 1%. He received 465,650 votes, out of a total vote for president of 122,295,345. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
The New York Times of September 23 has this interview with Ralph Nader, written by Katherine Seelye. The title is “Nader, Drawing Votes – from McCain.” The article itself does not actually present the data to support its title, but notes that Nader makes this allegation and accepts it. UPDATE: the New York Times piece has been revised and improved on this point; the link above goes to the updated Times article. Thanks very much to reporter Katherine Seelye for pointing this out. Seelye is a heroine of the ballot access movement. In 1997, she publicized in the Times the story of how the Pennsylvania legislature had quadupled the number of signatures, by amending another election law bill in a 3 a.m. session. The publicity engendered by her story lead to Governor Tom Ridge vetoing that repressive election law bill.
The article says Nader only received one-third of the vote for president in 2004. Actually, he got .381%. It would be more accurate to say he got .4%, or possibly to say he got three-eighths of 1%. He received 465,650 votes, out of a total vote for president of 122,295,345. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
The Mississippi ballot access case, on behalf of the Natural Law Party and Brian Moore, will be Thursday, September 25, at 9:30 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Jackson. The Illinois ballot access case, on behalf of independent U.S. House candidate Allan Stevo, will also be on September 25 in the morning, in the 7th circuit, in Chicago.
Although no date has been set for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court hearing in the Republican appeal to remove Bob Barr from the ballot, the briefs are due October 2. Both sides must file simultaneous briefs. Obviously the brief for Bob Barr will include the recent Massachusetts opinion.