A U.S. District Court in Massachusetts will hold a hearing in Barr v Galvin on September 12. The issue is whether the U.S. Constitution requires states to permit stand-ins for president and vice-president on petitions. Massachusetts permitted stand-ins in 1980, 1996, 2000 and 2004. Also Massachusetts told the Libertarian Party in 2007 that stand-ins are permitted. Therefore, a side issue, separate from the constitutional issue, is whether the state violates due process by changing its mind after it was virtually too late for the Libertarian Party to start an entirely new petition.

On August 28, Allan Stevo asked the 7th circuit to hear his appeal. He is an independent candidate for U.S. House. A U.S. District Court had upheld the law he had challenged, requiring him to get 5% of the last vote cast on his petition (approximately 10,000 signatures) even though state law would only have required exactly 5,000 signatures if he had been running in 2002 or 2012. The case is Stevo v Keith.

On August 27, 2008, the Democratic Party became the first major party to nominate a black presidential candidate. August 27, 2008 was also the 100th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson’s birth. As Robert A. Caro’s op-ed in the New York Times of August 28 says, Barack Obama’s nomination would not have been possible without Lyndon Johnson, who pushed Congress to create the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Caro says, “As I watch Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic convention tonight, I will be remembering another speech…That speech was President Lyndon Johnson’s address to Congress in 1965 announcing that he was about to have introduced a voting rights act, and in some respects Mr. Obama’s candidacy is the climax – at least thus far – of a movement based not only on the sacrifices and heroism of the Rev. Dr. King and generations of black fighters for civil rights but also on the political genius of Lyndon Johnson.”

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it possible for tens of millions of Americans to register and vote. Yes, it trampled on states’ rights; it told certain states that they could not change any election laws relating to voting and candidacy, unless the U.S. Justice Department approved those changes. But the actions of state legislatures in the deep South, constantly thinking up new barriers to voter registration as soon as old laws had been struck down, left little choice, other than a constitutional amendment federalizing election administration. The greatest achievement toward free elections taken by Congress in the 20th century (short of passing certain constitutional amendments) was passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Justice Department has consistently interpreted the Voting Rights Act to not apply to state laws that disenfranchise minor party and independent voters. Congress needs to pass a new Voting Rights Act.