On September 11, 2007, Robert L. Schulz and many other voters filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the U.S. Constitution requires reliable vote-counting methods. The lawsuit also alleges that only paper ballots, hand-counted, are truly reliable. The case is Schulz v State of New York, 1:07-cv-943-LEK, in the northern district of New York.

There have been other attempts to persuade courts to invalidate certain types of vote-counting machines, and they have generally not succeeded. Even sitting Congressman Robert Wexler’s lawsuit did not prevail. The Schulz lawsuit is somewhat notable because it is endeavoring to sue elections officials in all 50 states. There are 150 voter-plaintiffs, three from each state. For more information about this lawsuit, see www.electionguardians.org, or www.votefraud.org. Robert L. Schulz was the New York Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in 1994. In 1994 he won a lawsuit in federal court, requiring New York to give the list of registered voters to the unqualified parties on the same basis that the state provided the list to the qualified parties.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to hear Davis v Federal Election Commission, 07-320. This case challenges the part of the McCain-Feingold law that gives fund-raising advantages to congressional candidates who have opponents who give more than $650,000 to their own campaigns. The November 22 syndicated George F. Will column boosts the lawsuit, and attacks that part of the McCain-Feingold law, which is commonly referred to as the “Millionaires’ Amendment”. See it here. Thanks to Rick Hasen.

Washington state’s presidential primary ballot includes candidates mentioned in major news media. The Secretary of State plans to put these choices on each major party’s ballot: Republicans will be Giuliani, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, McCain, Paul, Romney, Tancredo and Thompson (9 names); Democrats will be Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama, Richardson (8 names). The list could still be altered if anyone withdraws before December 31, 2007.