Oregon Senate Bill 1102, to legalize fusion, has passed the Senate Election Law Committee and is now in the Joint Ways & Means Committee.
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The Pennsylvania Constitution Party earlier decided to bring a new federal lawsuit against certain Pennsylvania election laws. Since then, the Pennsylvania Green Party and the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party have decided to join the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is likely to challenge four Pennsylvania laws or practices: (1) Pennsylvania’s unique system of forcing candidates whose petitions are successfully challenged, to pay for the costs of determining that the petition was insufficient; (2) the practice of many Pennsylvania counties of failing to count any write-in votes, even though under state law all write-ins are valid; (3) Pennsylvania’s failure to tally registrations for parties that are not qualified parties but which do place nominees on the November ballot; (4) the wording on the petition that says the signers are “nominating” the listed candidates.
The basis for point (1) is that the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that states cannot force voters, parties, and candidates to pay for the costs of administering elections. The basis for point (3) is a string of favorable precedents on the same issue from courts in Colorado, Oklahoma, New Jersey, New York and Iowa. The basis for point (4) is a string of favorable precedents from federal courts in Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia, striking down restrictive wording on petitions for minor parties or their candidates.
On February 13, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman vetoed LD 39. LD 39 made it illegal for non-residents of Nebraska to circulate any petitions in Nebraska. It also made it illegal for anyone to pay anyone on a per-signature basis for petitioning. Heineman is a Republican. He is very popular; he was elected in November 2006 with 73.4% of the vote.
There is a danger that the unicameral State Senate will override the Governor’s veto. The original vote was 31-14, with 4 Senators not voting. If you live in Nebraska, please ask your State Senator to uphold the veto. Thanks to Sean Haugh for this news. UPDATE: the vote on whether the Governor’s veto will be overriden is set for Tuesday, February 19.
See this post from Babblemur, giving the latest results on the various Green Party presidential primaries, including a delegate count. Green Party presidential primaries are all used to determine which delegates are selected to the national convention in Chicago in July 2008. Green Party presidential primaries are not just “beauty contests”. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for the link.
The Arizona Libertarian presidential primary results are still not tabulated, but will be tabulated within a week. The Arizona Libertarian primary was run by the party itself, via the internet.
The North Carolina Libertarian Party is not finished with its party petition after all. Yesterday’s posting is erroneous. The party still needs between 4,000 and 8,000 signatures. Since the state willingly accepts petitions on a flow basis, and checks them quickly, the party will know exactly how many more it needs, and can get that number. The deadline is in May.
In Utah, the deadline is Friday, February 15. The Libertarian and Personal Choice Parties are virtually finished. The Green Party is making a last-minute push to qualify in Utah as well. 2,000 signatures are needed.