On July 24, a U.S. District Court in New Hampshire ruled that an ordinary voter does not have standing to argue that Senator John McCain is not eligible to be president. Hollander v McCain, 1:08-cv-99. The voter had argued that McCain is not a “natural-born” citizen. Thanks to Jon Roland for this news.
On July 25, the Louisiana State Court of Appeals ruled that a congressional candidate may be kept off the Democratic primary ballot because he signed a candidacy form that contains an untrue statement. Williams v Fahrenholtz, 2008-7459. The candidate is Jimmy Fahrenholtz, running for the U.S. House, 2nd district, in New Orleans.
The form that all candidates must sign in Louisiana says, “I do not owe any outstanding fines, fees or penalties pursuant to the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act, and I acknowledge that I am subject to the provisions of the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act if I am a candidate for any office other than United States Senator, Representative in Congress, or member of a committee of a political party.” Another Louisiana election law says that a person may not run if he or she makes a false certification. Fahrenholtz did owe outstanding fines from his previous runs for Orleans Parish School Board member (he is a member of that board).
Legal precedent is strong that a candidate may not be kept off the ballot for Congress because that candidate had been convicted of a crime. The Louisiana State Court of Appeals decision says that if Fahrenholtz thought the Louisiana law is unconstitutional, he should have mentioned that argument in his trial court memorandum, and he didn’t. Nevertheless, the vote in the State Court of Appeals was 4-4. Since he had also lost in the trial court, he is still off the ballot. He plans to ask the Louisiana Supreme Court to hear his appeal, and he may also go to federal court. Precedents from other jurisdictions that say candidates cannot be stopped from running for Congress, despite having broken campaign laws, include Hamburg v State of Wyoming, 820 P 2d 523, at 533 (1991), and United States v Richmond, 550 F Supp 605 (1982). Thanks to Randall Hayes for this news. For more, including links to the decision, see here.
On July 22, Acting Guam Governor Michael W. Cruz vetoed Bill 287. That bill would have moved Guam’s presidential vote from November to September. The bill’s sponsor had believed that moving the Guam presidential vote to September would get more attention in the United States for the Guam vote. However, Lieutenant Governor Cruz said, “If Guam is going to conduct a straw poll for president, we should vote the same as all other American citizens, which is during the general election.”
On July 25, Ralph Nader submitted 7,500 more signatures in West Virginia. He had already submitted 17,000. That first batch has already been checked, and it had a 69% validity rate. Assuming the same validity rate for the recent batch, he will easily meet the requirement of 15,118 valid signatures. Thanks to Glenn Brown for this news. Also on July 25, Nader submitted his Tennessee petition, and had earlier submitted a petition in Washington state, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, all relatively easy states.
Also on July 25, the Washington state Libertarian Party submitted over 2,000 signatures, toward the requirement of 1,000 for placing Bob Barr on the ballot.
Florida State Senator Steven Geller is about to drop his lawsuit, Geller v Democratic National Committee, because the Obama campaign has assured him that Obama will ask that the full Florida delegation be seated, with a full vote for each delegate. The lawsuit had been filed on May 22, 2008, in federal court in Miami.
