Hendrick Hertzberg, chief political correspondent to The New Yorker, takes Vermont Governor Jim Douglas to task here, over Douglas’ veto of the bill that would have instituted Instant Runoff Voting for Vermont congressional general elections. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
On April 8, a potential independent candidate filed a federal lawsuit against the Montana ballot access law for independent candidates (for office other than president). Kelly v Johnson, cv 08-25. Steve Kelly would like to be an independent candidate for U.S. Senate this year. In 2007 the legislature moved the petition deadline from June to March. The same bill provided that independent candidates must also pay a large filing fee. Even under the old law (as well as the new law), a U.S. Senate independent candidate this year needs 9,992 valid signatures. The combination of the large number of signatures, the early filing deadline, and the fee, prompts the lawsuit. Oddly, ever since 1999, presidential independents, and new parties, only need a flat 5,000 signatures.
On April 15, the 9th circuit will hear Nader v Brewer, 06-16251. The issues are whether someone from outside Arizona should be allowed to circulate an independent presidential petition, and whether Arizona’s early June petition deadline for independent presidential candidates violates Anderson v Celebrezze. The hearing is at 9 a.m.
The judges will be Mary Schroeder (a Carter appointee), and Richard Clifton and Consuelo Callahan (Bush Jr. appointees).
On April 7, Missouri SB 797 was sent to the House Elections Committee. It has already passed the Senate. It deletes the requirement that a petition for a new party must list that party’s presidential candidate, and its candidates for presidential elector. Therefore, in the future, if this bill passes, the party petition need not name candidates for any office at all; the party chooses its nominees after the petition has been circulated.
In the meantime, Missouri HB 1310, which moves the independent petition deadline from late July to March, has not advanced in the Senate Committee that hears election law bills, ever since it had a hearing on March 31.
On April 7, this newspaper story ran about Ralph Nader’s rally at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The story says more than 200 people were in attendance.
