The Alaska primary on August 26 included four initiatives. Measure Three would have established a system of public funding of campaigns for state office. It was defeated, 35.6% to 64.4%. The Measure would have treated all candidates equally. In other words, the qualifying standards were the same for every candidate, regardless of the candidate’s partisan affiliation.
On August 20, a U.S. District Court ruled that the Committee for a United Independent Party may intervene in the case Idaho Republican Party v Ysursa. That lawsuit is an attempt by the Idaho Republican Party to obtain a closed primary for itself. The Committee for a United Independent Party is headquartered in New York, and holds itself out to the public as a force for the rights of independent voters. As far as is known, this is the first time CUIP has participated in any constitutional election law litigation anywhere in the United States, although it actively lobbies state legislatures around the nation. For example, CUIP was very active earlier this year, opposing a bill in Missouri to move the petition deadline for independent candidates from July to March.
On August 26, Herb Hoffman filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Maine, arguing that the U.S. Constitution was violated when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court removed him from the November ballot. He is the only independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine. He has asked for expedited hearing.
On August 22, the 2nd circuit struck down a New York state election law that says that absentee voters are not permitted to vote for Party County Committee Members. New York state elections officials send absentee voters a ballot that omits that office, but includes all the other offices that are on non-absentee ballots. The case is Price v New York State Board of Elections, 07-5367. The vote was 2-1. The dissenting judge thought that the law was only a trivial violation of the right to vote.
New York’s rationale for omitting Party County Committee elections from absentee ballots is that absentee ballots take longer to count than ordinary ballots, and the parties need to know very quickly who was elected to its county committees. However, since one of the co-plaintiffs in the case is the Republican Party of Albany County, that rationale wasn’t convincing to the two judges in the majority. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
On August 26, Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny ruled in favor of the Alan Keyes faction of the American Independent Party. The case is called King v Bowen, 34-2008-80000016. Judge Kenny said that the Chuck Baldwin faction of the party should have filed the lawsuit sooner. Also he said the Baldwin faction should have served Alan Keyes as an indispensible party. Therefore, the California ballot will list Alan Keyes as the presidential nominee of the American Independent Party, not Chuck Baldwin.
It is probably too late for the Chuck Baldwin faction of the party to appeal the ruling on which presidential candidate should be on the November ballot. However, the American Independent Party activists who brought the lawsuit are free to bring a new lawsuit, over who the legitimate party officers are. At the hearing, the Chuck Baldwin faction argued that its state convention on June 28 was legitimately called, and the Alan Keyes faction of the party did not seem to contest that point. The case was dismissed without prejudice, which means that the substantive issues have not yet been addressed. Here is the court website. Click on the link. Then choose the “Department” option, and enter Department 31 and the date 08/26/2008. Click “search”. There will be a court web page link to the decision near the bottom of the screen.
