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.

Democracy Unplugged is sponsoring a presidential candidates’ forum for the various parties that advocate socialism, plus candidates seeking the Green Party nomination. See the press release here. The event will be in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, April 18, at 7:30 pm. Invited are all the candidates seeking the Green nomination, as well as the presidential nominees of the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Actually attending will be a spokesperson for the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate, and the vice-presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. It is not yet known if the Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate, or any SWP spokesperson, will attend. Among the Greens, it is likely but not certain that Cynthia McKinney will attend.