On April 16, the Washington Secretary of State’s office announced the details of how ballots will look in this year’s “top-two” primary and general elections. Under each candidate’s name will appear “Prefers (example) Party”. The candidate is free to choose any party name if it is 16 letters or fewer, and is not obscene. The 16-letter limit means that no one can choose “Socialist Workers” or “Democratic Republican”. The Secretary of State says the candidate must figure out an abbreviation if the party of “preference” is longer than 16 letters (a blank space between two words counts, just as though it were a separate letter) . Since Socialist Workers Party candidates have regularly appeared on the ballot with the full party name in many Washington state elections ever since 1948, it seems somewhat likely that the party could win a lawsuit over the 16-character limit. The limit wouldn’t be so strict, except that space is needed for the word “prefers”.

Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news. Here is a news story about the regulations.

On April 14, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Schaefer v Lamone, no. 07-1143. The case challenged Maryland’s law that uses alphabetical order of candidates’ names, to determine the order of candidates on primary ballots. The plaintiff had argued in favor of either rotation of names, or a random procedure for deciding the order of names on the ballot.

The Idaho Democratic presidential primary, set for May 27, only has three names on the ballot: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Keith Russell Judd. The April 9 issue of Boise Weekly has this story about Judd. Since then, other Idaho newspapers have picked up the story. Judd has been an inmate of a federal prison in Texas since 1999. He was convicted for sending a threatening letter and is not set for release until 2013. Thanks to Michael Thompson.

Idaho presidential primary ballot access is automatic for candidates mentioned in the news media. Others qualify by paying $1,000. Judd paid the fee from his prison checking account. Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa has been quoted as saying that he may ask the legislature to make it more difficult for candidates to get on the presidential primary ballot. Ysursa also said he was “conned”, but even if he had known Judd is a convict, the U.S. Constitution does not permit states to bar candidates from running for federal office just because they are felons.