For eight years, the constitutionality of the Post Office regulation prohibiting petitioning on postal interior sidewalks has been pending in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in a case called Initiative & Referendum Institute v US Postal Service. In the meantime, another federal lawsuit challenging the same regulation is pending in the First Circuit. The plaintiff, Reynaldo Del Gallo, is submitting his brief on July 25. He had lost in the U.S. District Court on March 28, 2008, but he was representing himself pro se. Since then, the ACLU has found an expert attorney for his appeal.

Del Gallo was arrested, even though technically he was not petitioning on a postal sidewalk. He was standing on the post office sidewalk, asking passers-by to please visit his petition circulator, standing on a “legal” sidewalk nearby. The Post Office charged him with “electioneering”. The Post Office attorneys did not tell the Massachusetts court that the constitutionality of the anti-petitioning regulation is being litigated in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, and the plaintiff didn’t know about that case.

On July 24, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in Knutson v Department of the Secretary of State, case no. ken-08-375. The Court will issue its opinion on Monday, July 28. All five members of the Court who were in attendance asked questions of all the attorneys who argued. All sides agree that the independent candidate for U.S. Senate submitted at least 4,000 signatures of registered voters. The issue is whether some entire petition sheets must be rejected, on the basis of suspicion that the witness was not watching when the circulator gathered signatures on that sheet. The witness is the person who actually signs the bottom of each sheet, saying the signatures had been gathered in his or her presence. The evidence had established that the witness had not been watching when three particular signatures had been signed, but the candidate doesn’t need those three particular signatures.

California has a new format for its voter registration form, for the “political party” choice. The form asks “Do you want to register with a political party?”. The “Yes” block is on the left; the “No” block is on the right.

Under the “Yes” block, the form lists the ballot-qualified parties in alphabetical order, with a checkbox next to the name of each. Of course there is also a blank line for someone who wants to register into a party that is not ballot-qualified.

The new form is designed to deal with the problem that some people wish to register “Independent”, but the legislature forbids the Secretary of State from listing that choice on the form. This has caused some people to register into the American Independent Party because they have thought that is the proper way to show oneself as an independent.