On May 14, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann resigned. Ohio will hold a special election to replace him, on November 4, 2008. Since the petition deadline for independent candidates (for office other than president) has already passed, special procedures apply. An independent candidate for Attorney General needs 750 valid signatures, due August 19, 2008. UPDATE: the deadline is May 27, not August 19.

There is no procedure for a previously unqualified party to participate in the special election for Attorney General. The deadline for a new party (early November 2007) was held unconstitutional by the 6th circuit in 2006, and the legislature still hasn’t passed a new law. Last year the Ohio Secretary of State created a new deadline that was a few weeks later than the old law, meaning late November 2007 instead of early November 2007. A state’s failure to have a procedure for new or previously unqualified parties, in a special election, was held unconstitutional in Green Party of Arkansas v Priest, in 2001. The fact that Arkansas had a procedure for independent candidates in the special election was not sufficient.

On May 14, U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates, a Bush Jr. appointee, ruled against the Democratic National Committee in its lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission. The Democratic National Committee had filed the lawsuit on April 14, saying that the FEC (which has no quorum) will never be able to resolve the Democratic Party’s complaint that John McCain is violating federal campaign laws. But the Judge said the law requires the federal courts to abstain from such lawsuits until the FEC has had the matter for 120 days. He said the fact that the FEC has no quorum is no excuse to disregard that law. The decision is only 5 pages long and can be read at http://electionlawblog.org, Rick Hasen’s law blog.

On May 12, the nation’s TV networks sued South Dakota, over that state’s decision to keep exit pollsters 100 feet from the entrance of polling places at the June 3, 2008 primary. Exit pollsters in almost all other states are permitted to be 25 feet from the entrance. Similar lawsuits have won in federal court in the past in Florida, Georgia, Montana, Ohio, and Washington. The case is American Broadcasting Company (ABC), et al, v Nelson, 4:08-cv-4068.