Leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives have decided not to bring up HR 811 for a vote this week, and it probably won’t be brought up at all unless the sponsors can demonstrate that the bill has enough commitments to pass. HR 811 is Congressman Rush Holt’s bill to require vote-counting machines to have a paper trail.
On September 24 (Monday), the U.S. Supreme Court will hold an internal, private conference, to decide which cases to accept. On the agenda is consideration of the Pennsylvania ballot access case, Rogers v Cortes, 06-1721. The Court probably won’t announce what it has decided until a week later, October 1, the first day of the new term.
The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition will hold a rally on the Maryland Avenue side of the U.S. Supreme Court on September 24. The hope is that members of the Court will notice the rally. Speaking will be Bill Redpath, national chair of the Libertarian Party; Brent McMillan, national political director of the Green Party; any many Pennsylvania activists. A documentary film-maker is planning to film the rally.
Ohio has a very peculiar law concerning who can circulate petitions. Anyone can circulate for a new party, but only a registered voter in Ohio may circulate for an independent candidate. On September 19, a U.S. District Court refused to rule on the issue of who can circulate an independent candidate’s petition. The court ruled that the plaintiffs don’t have standing. The case is Nader v Blackwell, 2:06cv-821. Nader may appeal.
On September 20, a subcommittee of the New Hampshire election laws House Committee held another hearing on HB 48, the bill to ease ballot access. This meeting, like the one on September 12, was 90 minutes long. It seems likely that the subcommittee will approve some bill that eases ballot access, or the definition of “party”. It is fairly likely the bill will lower the number of signatures needed for a group to qualify all of its nominees. Currently that petition is 3% of the last vote cast. That procedure has existed since 1996 and has only been used once. Currently it requires 12,524 valid signatures. The bill may amend that to a flat 5,000 signatures. Thanks to Ken Blevins for this news.
Brian Howey, who writes the Brian Howey Political Report, interviewed former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn recently, and asked about a possible independent presidential run. Here is the interview.
