According to Darrell Castle, the long-awaited joint Constitution, Green and Libertarian Party lawsuit against the Tennessee ballot access law for new and minor parties will be filed on January 23. Darrell Castle is the local cooperating attorney for the case. As noted in earlier posts, no party besides the Democratic and Republican Parties has been ballot-qualified in Tennessee since 1972. Many attempts have been made, but they have all failed.
The Republican presidential primary vote in New Hampshire is being recounted statewide, and the Democratic New Hampshire vote is being recounted in New Hampshire’s two most populous counties. Although the work isn’t finished yet, partial results have been reported in this newspaper story. It appears there is very little change between the recount results so far, and the original count.
January 21 was the Vermont deadline for filing for the presidential primaries. Candidates needed 1,000 signatures.
Republicans who filed are Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Paul and Romney. Democrats who filed are Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich and Obama.
In the Liberty Union primary, only Brian Moore (Socialist Party presidential nominee) filed. The Liberty Union presidential primary is binding, so Moore will be the Liberty Union nominee in November in Vermont.
On January 10, the Oregon Secretary of State said he would put these candidates on the major party presidential primary ballots automatically: Democrats Clinton, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama; Republicans Giuliani, Huckabee, Hunter, McCain, Paul, Romney, Thompson. The law says candidates are on the ballot automatically if they are mentioned in news media.
The Secretary of State also said he would delete any names on his list who withdraw, so presumably he will soon delete Duncan Hunter.
On January 3, New Mexico congressional candidate Don Wiviott filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that the new primary ballot access (for office other than president) is unconstitutional. The 2007 legislature changed the primary ballot access law, so that no one without at least 20% support at party conventions may appear on the primary ballot. Wiviott is running for U.S. House, 3rd district. The lawsuit is in state court in Santa Fe. It is called Wiviott v State, 101cv-2008-22.
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision, New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres, will make it very difficult for Wiviott to win his lawsuit, unless the court decides that the New Mexico State Constitution has more ballot access protection than the U.S. Constitution does.
