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Missouri House Committees Pass Restrictive Ballot Access Bill

Posted on January 31, 2008 by adminJanuary 31, 2008

On January 23, the Missouri House Urban Education Reform Committee passed HB 1310. On January 30, the Missouri House Rules Committee also passed it. It requires independent candidates, for all office, to file a declaration of candidacy in March of election years.

Since the bill does not exempt presidential independents, it is unconstitutional under both Anderson v Celebrezze, 460 US 780, and McCarthy v Kirkpatrick, 420 F Supp 366 (a 1976 Missouri federal court decision). If you live in Missouri, please contact your legislators (especially your State Senator) and oppose this bill.

New Hampshire Bill Would Make it More Difficult for Write-in Candidates in Primary to Get a Party Nomination

Posted on January 31, 2008 by adminJanuary 31, 2008

Current New Hampshire law permits write-ins in primaries. The law also says that any write-in candidate in a primary who gets the most votes for a particular office, and who gets at least 10 write-ins, is nominated. HB 1204 would raise that to a minimum of 35 write-in votes.

Although it may sound trivial to require even 35 write-in votes, many New Hampshire State House districts are very small. The state has 400 State House members, and in some districts that only a single member, fewer than 1,000 voters may turn out at the primary.

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

Posted on January 31, 2008 by adminJanuary 31, 2008

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 January 31, 2008 by adminJanuary 31, 2008

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 January 30, 2008 by adminJanuary 30, 2008

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.