This commentary by Dan Tokaji, who has an election law blog, about the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Indiana photo voter-ID case, is well worth reading.
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On April 30, a poll sponsored by MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal was released. If the Democratic nominee were Barack Obama, the November results are: Obama 46%, McCain 43%, undecided 6%, other 5%. This poll didn’t list any “other” candidates. See here for more results from that same poll.
The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) has a web page, www.cofoe.org. The minutes of the 2008 board meeting are now posted. The meeting was held March 2, 2008, in New York city. COFOE has existed since 1985 and is a loose coalition of the nation’s nationally-organized minor parties, plus other organizations that also support tolerant ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. COFOE raises money to help get ballot access lawsuits filed.
The Iowa legislature ended its 2007-2008 session on April 26. That session had various interesting election law bills, but none of them passed. Democrats control both Houses of the legislature and hold the Governorship, but they did not pass the National Popular Vote plan bill, SF 2008. Other bills that failed to move are:
SF 246, which would have required the order of parties to be rotated on the ballot.
SF 426, which would have eliminated ballot access petitions for candidates for township office (current law requires 10 signatures, but the bill would have said only a declaration of candidacy is needed).
HF 155, which would have let any registered voter serve as an election board member. Current law says only members of one of the two largest political parties may serve.
University of West Virginia Law Professor Bob Bastress is seeking one of the two Democratic Party nominations for State Supreme Court Justice, in the May 6 primary. Bastress has been a professor there for 30 years and has done many pro bono constitutional lawsuits during those years. On April 9, he was endorsed by the Charleston Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper. The members of the State Bar have ranked him as tied for the top, in a survey of all 4,600 members that evaluated all the candidates on legal ability, reasoning ability, impartiality, diligence, courtesy, and integrity.
Bastress has filed 6 lawsuits against various election laws that make ballot access difficult for minor parties and independent candidates, during the last 28 years, and he has won 4 of them. He represented John Anderson, the Libertarian Party, and the Citizens Party, in 1980, when his lawsuit struck down the law that circulators could not work outside their home magisterial district. In 2003, he won a case for the Libertarian Party against a state law that said circulators must tell signers that if the signer signs the petition, they cannot vote in the primary. In 2000, he won a case for the Constitution Party that struck down the filing fee for declared write-in candidates. He has tried twice to overturn the May petition deadline for minor party and independent candidates (for office other than president), but those lawsuits did not win. See his campaign webpage at www.bastressforjustice.com. The race has four candidates, with two to be nominated.
Any voter who is registered “Independent”, or as a member of a party that is not ballot-qualified, is free to choose a Democratic primary ballot this year in West Virginia.