On April 4, Vermont Governor James Douglas, a Republican, vetoed SB 108, which would have provided that Vermont use Instant-Runoff voting in congressional general elections. Thanks to Rob Richie for the news.
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Here is Ralph Nader’s response brief, in his lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee now pending in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. Nader is arguing that the case should not be dismissed on summary judgment, and that a trial is needed.
An earlier post noted that the Kansas House had passed a bill setting up a presidential primary in 2012 (Kansas had been one of 10 states this year with caucuses instead of a presidential primary). The 2012 presidential primary bill is HB 2683, but that bill also requires voters at the polls to show photo-ID. This article discusses the bill and the possibility that if it passes all the way through the legislature, it will be vetoed.
On April 3, the 11th circuit voted 2-1 to let Florida continue to use a restrictive voter registration law that was passed in 2005. The decision does not say that the Florida law is legal or constitutional, but it says that while the issue of the law’s legality and constitutionality is being adjudicated in court, the law may remain in effect. The U.S. District Court had enjoined the law back on December 18, 2007.
The law says that voters registering to vote must provide the last four digits of their Social Security Number, or their Florida Drivers License number. The voter registrations are not processed unless there is an exact match between the name and address listed on the form, and the name and address on the Social Security rolls or the Drivers License records. If there is no exact match, the voter is sent a notice saying that his or her voter registration application has been rejected. The voter registration application in Florida is 29 days before an election. If the voter registration application is rejected, and it is now too late for the same voter to try to re-register, the voter may only vote provisionally. The provisional vote will not be counted unless the voter returns to the county elections office within two days of the election and demonstrates that the initial rejection of the voter registration application was due to a government error. If the rejection was caused by the voter’s own careless or inadvertent error (such as listing a slightly different form of name, for example a missing hyphen, or forgetting to add “Junior”, or transposing a digit in a Social Security number or a drivers license number) then the provisional vote is not counted.
The Florida restriction had caused 14,000 voter registration applications to be rejected during 2006 and 2007. No other state has a law like this.
The majority decision in the 11th circuit does not discuss the constitutionality of the Florida voter registration law, but the dissent does. The decision was written by Judge Gerald Tjoflat, who has been on the 11th circuit since 1975. Judge Tjoflat has written or signed more unfavorable ballot access decisions than any other U.S. Court of Appeals Judge in history.
On April 4, the Michigan Democratic State Executive Committee decided not to try a presidential caucus, or a party-run mail-in presidential primary, this year. Michigan elections officials had held a presidential primary in January that, under Democratic Party national rules, was too early, so the national party rules eliminated Michigan delegates this year. The Michigan delegates could still have been seated if the party had managed to find a “legal” way to choose them, but the state party has now given up. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.