On September 25, the 10th circuit held oral arguments in Yes on Term Limits v Savage, 07-6233. The three judges were Michael R. Murphy (a Clinton appointee), Monroe G. McKay (a Carter appointee), and Michael McConnell (a Bush Jr. appointee). The issue is Oklahoma’s ban on out-of-state initiative circulators. The panel seemed somewhat skeptical of Oklahoma’s theory that out-of-state circulators are intrinsically prone to committing forgery, yet in-state circulators are not.
September 25 is a day with three important ballot access hearings. The 10th circuit will hear Yes on Term Limits v Savage, to determine if the U.S. Constitution permits states to criminalize out-of-state initiative petition circulators. The 7th circuit will hear Stevo v Keith, over whether there is any state interest in requiring independent candidates for U.S. House to get over 10,000 valid signatures in some election years, but exactly 5,000 signatures in other election years. And a U.S. District Court in Jackson, Mississippi, will decide whether Brian Moore’s paperwork (to be on the ballot for president) should have been accepted. He submitted the paperwork at 5:10 p.m. The election law only specifies the day of the deadline, not the hour (many other states specify some particular hour on the deadline day). But Mississippi said he was ten minutes too late.
The Working Families Party, which started out in 1998 as a party only in New York state, has been expanding into other states. This year it has candidates for partisan office for the first time in Oregon and Delaware. It also has candidates in New York and Connecticut, as it did in 2006 and 2004.
In Delaware, the Democratic Party has exerted considerable pressure on all Democratic nominees, not to accept the nomination of the Working Families Party as well (Delaware permits fusion). However, this year in Delaware, three Democrats bucked their own party and accepted the Working Families nomination. The Working Families Party also cross-endorsed three Republican nominees for state house.
The Working Families Party tried to have nominees this year in South Carolina, but Democratic Party officials persuaded various Democrats not to accept the WFP cross-endorsement.
On September 24, New York Republican Party attempts to place Vito Fossella on the November ballot as their nominee for U.S. House, 13th district, came to nothing. The Republican primary earlier this month had been won by Robert A. Straniere. Fossella had not run for re-election. But Republicans fear that Straniere will lose, so they nominated Straniere (without his knowledge) for Justice of the New York Supreme Court in Manhatten. If Straniere had accepted that nomination, the law would have permitted the Republicans to replace him with anyone they wished, and they would have chosen Fossella.
But Straniere wants to run for Congress, so he declined the Judicial race nomination. He withdrew in person at the Board of Elections, so there would be no confusion. See this story.
On September 24, Senator John McCain suggested that the first presidential debate (set for Friday, September 26) be postponed until Congress has dealt with the fiscal emergency. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
