U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch has this essay in the Harvard Journal on Legislation, decrying the policy that denies District of Columbia residents any voting representation in Congress. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link. Hatch also gives the legal rationale for granting voting rights to the District without the need for a constitutional amendment.
California has very difficult procedures for independent candidates to get on the ballot. No independent has qualified for any regularly-scheduled partisan office since 2000, and none has qualified for statewide office since 1992. This year, two independent candidates are making serious attempts to complete the petition to qualify as independent candidates. They are Cindy Sheehan, in the 8th U.S. House district, and Connor Vlakancic, in the 15th State Senate district (by coincidence, the California 15th State Senate district is also the subject of the preceding post). Vlakancic needs even more signatures than Cindy Sheehan, since California State Senate districts have bigger populations than U.S. House districts. Vlakancic kicked off his petition drive on June 28, and he and his team got 327 signatures on the first day. The deadline for California independent petitions in August 8. Vlakancic needs 13,533 valid signatures. The last time someone qualified as an independent for a California State Senate district was 1994, when incumbent Quentin Kopp was re-elected (Kopp was elected as an independent in 1986 and also re-elected as an independent in 1990).
California still hasn’t finished counting all the write-in votes from the June 3 primary. However, most counties have finished. In the 15th State Senate, there was a spirited contest for the Democratic nomination by two competing write-in candidates. A registered Democrat, Dennis Morris, has over 1,400 write-ins. This total will grow, because Santa Clara County write-ins still haven’t been tallied (the district includes part or all of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties). The incumbent Republican State Senator in the 15th district, Abel Maldonado, has over 800 write-ins, and of course his total will also grow when Santa Clara County reports its write-ins.
No one appeared on the Democratic primary ballot in that race. In virtually all other states that allow write-ins in primaries, the state would acknowledge that Dennis Morris is the Democratic nominee, and his name would be printed on the November ballot. But California requires write-in candidates at the primary to not only defeat all their opponents, but to attain a write-in total that is at least 1% of the vote for that office at the last general election. Therefore, under section 8605, Morris can’t be the nominee because his write-in total almost certainly won’t reach 3,689.
A strong case can be made that section 8605, mandating that large number of write-ins, violates the State Constitution. That is because in November 2004, the voters added Prop. 60 to the Constitution. It says that a party “shall not be denied the ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate who received, at the primary election, the highest vote among that party’s candidates.” In 2006, another frustrated write-in candidate attempted to use Prop. 60 to attack section 8605. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian denied him injunctive relief. She said she didn’t think the intent of the legislature (which wrote Prop. 60) was to help write-in candidates. But case law is strong that legislative intent is irrelevant when the language is clear and unambiguous. Attorneys for the plaintiff in 2006 didn’t expect that ruling (which was made from the bench), so they weren’t completely prepared to rebut the judge at that moment, and no additional hearing was ever held in the case. Any lawsuit that Dennis Morris may bring against section 8605 this year will be better prepared. Morris is aware of the potential for a lawsuit, and he may sue.
The ballot-qualified Kansas Reform Party held its state convention back on May 31, and nominated candidates for office, including presidential electors pledged to Chuck Baldwin for president. On June 27, the party turned in the paperwork for these nominations.
The Kansas Secretary of State has hinted that he won’t allow the party to do this. He has not ruled definitively, however. Now that the party has finalized its choice, he will need to either honor the nominations, or explain precisely what provision of Kansas law purports to tell the party that it cannot nominate the presidential candidate of the Constitution Party. In 1980, the American Party of Kansas was allowed to nominate Frank Shelton for president, even though the national convention of the American Party had chosen Percy Greaves. Also, in 1968, the Conservative Party of Kansas was permitted to nominate George Wallace as its presidential candidate, even though the Conservative Party was not affiliated with George Wallace’s American (also called American Independent) Party.
On June 26, the Illinois legislature sent SB 439 to the Governor. It lets municipalities use Instant-Runoff Voting for foreign absentee ballots. The Governor has two months to sign or veto it.
