West Virginia Constitution Party Submits 20,610 Signatures

Posted on by August 1, 2008
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The West Virginia Constitution Party submitted 20,610 signatures to be on the 2008 ballot for president. Some of them had been turned in previously and have an 80% validity rate. Unfortunately the petition only counts for president. In order to count for Governor, all the signatures would have been due in May. So although all the petitions have the gubernatorial candidate listed, the petitions will only be useful for putting Chuck Baldwin on the ballot.

The West Virginia Libertarian presidential petition probably doesn’t have enough valid signatures. The campaign is continuing to obtain more, and will submit them soon. If the first batch is insufficient, a particular experienced attorney will file a lawsuit against the deadline. The basis for the lawsuit will be Anderson v Celebrezze.

The Pennsylvania Constitution Party will probably also collect more signatures and turn them in, and bring a lawsuit against Pennsylvania’s August 1 deadline. The party was short approximately 2,500 signatures on the August 1 deadline. The Pennsylvania Green Party will probably join in with this lawsuit, or file a similar lawsuit, if it can collect another 12,000 signatures in Pennsylvania in the next few weeks.

Are August 1 Petition Deadlines for President Vulnerable to Legal Challenge?

Posted on by August 1, 2008
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Both Pennsylvania and West Virginia require minor party and independent presidential petitions to be submitted on August 1. In both states, one or another minor party is struggling with that deadline.

The Pennsylvania deadline seems very vulnerable to challenge. The legislature has never passed any law saying the deadline is August 1. Instead, in 1984, both the Libertarian Party and the Communist Party sued Pennsylvania over the May deadline. The state gave in and signed a consent decree, promising to accept petitions up until August 1.

But the July 17,2008 court order in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Brunner says that only state legislatures may create ballot access barriers, for president. In the Ohio case, the Secretary of State had created a ballot access barrier, but the Court interpreted Article II, section 1, to mean that only legislatures can do this. That part of the U.S. Constitution says “Each state shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.” Applying the same logic to Pennsylvania, the August 1 deadline is void.

No similar argument can be made against the West Virginia deadline of August 1, since it was passed by the legislature. But one can argue that it is too early, because the U.S. Supreme Court said in Anderson v Celebrezze that states may not discriminate against independent and minor party presidential candidates in the matter of timing. The major parties have not chosen their vice-presidential nominees, not even informally, and they won’t formally choose their presidential candidates until August 24-28 (Democrats) and September 1-4 (Republicans). There are two court precedents finding early August deadlines to be unconstitutionally early, one from Rhode Island in 1976 and one giving injunctive relief in Alaska in 1992.

New Jersey Constitution Party on Ballot Despite Glitch

Posted on by August 1, 2008
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The New Jersey Elections Department has certified Chuck Baldwin for the November ballot, despite the glitch that the petitions were submitted three days late. The state had erroneously issued petition blanks that clearly said they are due on August 11. The state had been aware of the error, but thought it had retrieved all the “bad” forms before issuing any to any campaign. Since the state made the error, it accepted the late filing.

Massachusetts Election Bills Failed to Pass

Posted on by August 1, 2008
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The Massachusetts legislature ended its session in the middle of the night (July 31-August 1), without passing either high-profile election law bill. H.4952 was the National Popular Vote Plan bill, and S.2807 would have instituted election-day voter registration.

The National Popular Vote Plan bill had passed both houses, but the accompanying vote to send the bill to the governor never took place. Election-day registration had passed the Senate on July 30, but didn’t get a vote in the House. Thanks to Jack Dean for this news. Here is more detail about the chaotic last few hours of the session.