Utah Senate Passes Bill to Force Write-in Candidates to Pay Filing Fee

Posted on by January 31, 2008
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On January 29, the Utah Senate unanimously passed SB 126, which requires declared write-in candidates to pay the same filing fee that ballot-listed candidates must pay.

Such laws have been held unconstitutional in other states, in every instance. The U.S. Supreme Court said in both 1972 and 1974 that the only legitimate purpose of filing fees is to keep ballots from being crowded with too many names. Because write-in candidates’ names do not appear on the ballot, a filing fee for them serves no legitimate state purpose. Filing fees for write-in candidates were invalidated in Maryland (Dixon v Maryland State Board of Election Laws, 878 F 2d 776, 4th cir.1989) and in West Virginia (Phillips v Hechler, 120 F Supp 2d 587, 2000).

Kentucky Senate Passes February Presidential Primary Bill

Posted on by January 31, 2008
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On January 30, the Kentucky Senate passed SB 3 by a vote of 21-14. It moves the presidential primary from May to February. If it passes, it will not have any effect until 2012.

The bill leaves the primary for office other than president in May. It provides that there would be an early presidential primary by itself, with the primary for all other office to be held separately, several months later.

Republicans generally supported the bill; Democrats generally opposed it.

Nader Supporters Set Up Exploratory Committee for Possible Nader Run

Posted on by January 30, 2008
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Nine supporters of Ralph Nader have created this website, asking for donations to an exploratory committee for a possible Nader presidential candidacy this year. They are Peter Camejo, Matt Gonzalez, Theresa Amato, Jason Kafoury, Sally Soriano, Matt Zawisky, Nat Coppernoll, Julie Coyle, and Carl Mayer.

The web page does not say why the Committee was created just now. However, chances are that the January 30 withdrawal of John Edwards from the Democratic presidential race triggered the move.

North Carolina Ballot Access Hearing Goes Well

Posted on by January 30, 2008
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On January 30, a state court in North Carolina heard oral arguments in the ballot access case filed in 2005 by the Libertarian Party (the Green Party joined into this case in 2007).
The judge said there is need for a trial, to obtain more facts.

That trial will probably be in March. It is encouraging that the judge wants a trial, because it indicates he is the type of judge who will be influenced by actual evidence. Furthermore, he seemed to be leaning toward the view that there is no state interest in requiring more than 10,000 or so signatures for a new party to get on the ballot. Thanks to Sean Haugh for this report.

Major Candidates’ Vote Totals So Far

Posted on by January 30, 2008
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Given Rudy Giuliani’s withdrawal, there are only 7 major party presidential candidates remaining who have had the organizational strength to qualify for all presidential primary ballots they wished to be on. Adding up the votes from the four states that have held presidential primaries yields these totals:

Republicans: McCain 1,182,765; Romney 1,073,491; Huckabee 557,138; Paul 150,518.

Democrats: Clinton 1,435,440; Obama 967,577; Edwards 390,062.

Note that this compilation only includes presidential primaries, not caucuses. Also note that there were also 237,558 votes in the Michigan Democratic primary for “uncommitted”, and that Edwards and Obama chose not to be on the Michigan ballot. Clinton’s national primary total without Michigan is 1,107,916.

Clinton has renewed her call for the Democratic national convention to seat delegates from Michigan and Florida. UPDATE: press reports say Edwards will also withdraw on January 30.