On June 29, the 11th circuit upheld Alabama’s ballot access law for new and minor parties, and for non-presidential independent candidates. That law, first put into effect in 1998, requires a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote. The decision was by Judge Frank Hull, who already had a bad record on ballot access. She had previously upheld Georgia’s district petition requirement of a petition signed by 5% of the number of registered voters, even though no minor party candidate has used that petition for U.S. House in 63 years.

The decision is Swanson v Worley, no. 06-13643. The decision does not mention that a law virtually identical to Alabama’s was declared unconstitutional law year in U.S. District Court in Arkansas. Nor does the decision mention the favorable ballot access in 2006 in Illinois and Ohio, in the 7th and 6th circuits. The decision does not mention the U.S. Supreme Court’s teaching in Storer v Brown, and in Mandel v Bradley, that ballot access laws that are seldom used are probably unconstitutional. The decision does admit that no one has used the 3% petition since 2000. But it says there is no evidence that anyone has tried since 2002. The truth is the Libertarian Party tried to qualify a statewide petition in 2006, and failed. Since this lawsuit was filed and adjudicated by the U.S. District Court in 2002 and 2003, no evidence could be submitted after 2003, so it is disingenuous for the decision to say that “there is no evidence in the record that any independent or minor party candidate sought and failed to gain ballot access since 2002.”

The decision says that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a June petition deadline in 1971 in Jenness v Fortson. This is not true. The Georgia law upheld in 1971 in Jenness v Fortson did have a June deadline, but the deadline was not an issue in that case. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in Mandel v Bradley that it is judicial error for any court to assume that Jenness v Fortson had upheld a June decision. The recent 11th circuit decision does not mention Mandel v Bradley.

The decision says that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld 3% and 5% district petitions in American Party of Texas v White, but the decision does not say that Texas had a maximum cap of 500 signatures on such district petitions.

It is not known if any of the Alabama plaintiffs will ask for U.S. Supreme Court review. A decision need not be made for several months.

On July 2, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was asked if he would agree to inclusive general election presidential debates, if he is the Republican nominee. The questioner, Larry Reinsch, prefaced the question by pointing out that there has never been a presidential election with more than 7 candidates who were theoretically able to be elected.

Romney responded to the question about whether he would agree to a general election debate that included all candidates who could theoretically win by saying, “Not necessarily. I’ll take a look at who the field is. Part of it is up to the broadcaster, as to who they want in. So, for instance, I’ve argued for a field that was a little narrower in one of the last debates, and they said, ‘No, no, we’re gonna bring everybody in’, a larger field, so as…the broadcaster has some say, I guess the Presidential Commission has some say…I’ll be deciding what I want to do later, but I’m not gonna make that call today.”

Reinsch then pointed out the virtues of letting the American voters hear about all the candidates who are running. Romney responded with a reference to the fact that at least one candidate for the Republican nomination, John Cox, has not been permitted into the Republican primary season debates so far, and said, “We have to draw the line somewhere, clearly if Mayor Bloomberg gets in, he’s an Independent Party candidate, he’s gonna have a place on that stage…but you can draw the line where you think you have a candidate that can be viable, that has a prospect of winning, so they took a good look at some numbers and polls that they have 1% of the population or something, because you’ve gotta draw the line somewhere, because there are probably hundreds of people running, so you gotta say who is viable. But I’ll make that determination down the road.”

Of course, Romney’s remark about hundreds of candidates shows he wasn’t listening when he had been told that there has never been a presidential election with more than 7 candidates who could theoretically won the election.

On June 30, former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney addressed 350 people at a Georgia NAACP fundraising dinner. According to the AP report, she delivered a fiery speech criticizing Democrats in Congress for failing to stop U.S. involvement in Iraq, ignoring the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and failing to impeach President Bush. McKinney specifically criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. McKinney is pondering whether or not to seek the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008.