On August 27, a federal court in Charleston, West Virginia, heard five and one-half hours of testimony about the constitutionality of the state’s August 1 petition deadline for minor party and independent presidential candidates. The case is Barr v Ireland. The hearing went from 1:30 pm to 7 pm. On August 28, there will be an additional telephone conference call hearing in the case. The judge indicated he will decide by August 29.
On August 27, a federal court in Charleston, West Virginia, heard five and one-half hours of testimony about the constitutionality of the state’s August 1 petition deadline for minor party and independent presidential candidates. The case is Barr v Ireland. The hearing went from 1:30 pm to 7 pm. On August 28, there will be an additional telephone conference call hearing in the case. The judge indicated he will decide by August 29.
An initiative, asking the voters of Cincinnati if they wish to use the Single Transferable Vote system for electing city council members, will be on the November 2008 ballot. The initiative sponsors were told on August 27 that they have enough valid signatures. “Single Transferable Vote” is the term for Instant-Runoff Voting when multiple winners are to be elected. For some reason, the newspapers in Cincinnati call it “Proportional Representation.”
On August 27, the Ohio Green Party filed its lawsuit get on the ballot. McKinney v Brunner, U.S. District Court, 2:08-cv-819. As regular readers of this blog know, the federal courts in Ohio earlier put the Libertarian Party and the Socialist Party on the Ohio ballot, since each party showed it has some support, and the state has no valid law in place regulating which parties should be on the ballot.
On August 27, Patty Lovaas filed a federal lawsuit, challenging Montana’s March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates. The case is Lovaas v Johnson, Missoula, 9:08-cv-127. The case was assigned to Judge Donald Molloy, a Clinton appointee. Lovaas is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate from Montana.
The U.S. District Court in Butte has been asked to set a hearing date to consider injunctive relief against that deadline, on behalf of another independent candidate for U.S. Senate, Steve Kelly. That case, Kelly v Johnson, was filed in April 2008.
