On June 11, the proponents of a Florida initiative filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Miami to overturn a 2007 law that changed the petition deadline for initiatives from August of the election year, to December 31 of the year preceding the election. The lawsuit also challenges irregularities in the petition-checking process. Some of the irregularities stem from the fact that the state’s voter data base is not up-to-date, and some from the fact that different counties use different standards for determining whether a signature is valid or not. The lawsuit attacks the practice of disqualifying inactive voters from signing initiative petitions, and also the practice of letting voters remove their signatures after the petition has been filed. The case is Florida Hometown Democracy v Browning, 08-80636, s.d.

The subject of the initiative is to amend the state Constitution, to require that local government comprehensive land use plans must be submitted for a vote of the people before they can take effect.

On the evening of June 12, Senator John McCain held a town meeting in New York city, at Federal Hall. He took questions from the audience. Frank Morano was able to ask the first question. He asked if McCain would participate in at least one general election presidential debate which includes all the candidates who are on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win the election. McCain first said that candidates should have some chance of winning to be included. But then he said “Maybe we should have one that includes everybody.”

Fox News was broadcasting the event. Unfortunately, while Morano was asking his question and getting his response, the station cut away to a commercial break. However, Fox reporter Shepard Smith then briefly told his audience what had just happened. He said that McCain had said, “Yes, it’s possible.” The words underneath the screen at that point were “McCain would be open to debating third party candidates.”

The candidates who are virtually certain to be on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win the election (assuming Cynthia McKinney is indeed the Green Party nominee) are McCain, Obama, Baldwin, Barr, McKinney and Nader, for a total of six.

The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) has national officers and a national Board. The Board has just voted to admit the Boston Tea Party to membership on the COFOE Board. For more about COFOE, including a copy of the minutes of the annual Board meetings, see www.cofoe.org.

The Boston Tea Party was formed in 2006 by Libertarians who were unhappy that the national Libertarian Party platform had been shrunk down so much by the national convention that year. The party is not now ballot-qualified in any state. It plans to hold an on-line presidential nominating process on June 15. Charles Jay and Robert Milnes are seeking the presidential nomination. Charles Jay was the presidential candidate of the Utah Personal Choice Party in 2004 (that party is no longer on the ballot in Utah). He now lives in Florida. Robert Milnes is a Green Party activist who has been promoting the idea that there should be a single presidential nominee for both the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. He lives in New Jersey. See the party’s web page, www.bostontea.us.