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.

The hearing for King vs. Bowen was held this morning in Sacramento. The case is to decide which faction of the California American Independent Party (AIP) has legal control of the state party, and therefore, which presidential ticket (Chuck Baldwin or Alan Keyes) will appear on the AIP line in California.

The judge promised to announce his decision by the end of today. Check Ballot Access News for the result.

The Ohio Green Party will file a lawsuit in federal court in Columbus on August 26, asking that it be placed on the November ballot. Under the recent precedents putting the Libertarian and Socialist Parties on the ballot, the lawsuit is likely to succeed. If it does, this will be the first time the Green Party label will have been printed on any Ohio ballot.