Puerto Rico Voting Rights Case Pending Before Organization of American States

Posted on by June 8, 2007
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Gregorio Igartua and seven other adult U.S. Citizens who reside in Puerto Rico filed a complaint last year against the United States for refusing to let them vote for president. The complaint was filed before the Organization of American States, and invokes the OAS Democratic Charter, which the United States signed long ago. The OAS will soon decide whether to schedule a hearing. It is cse P-776-06.

Igartua filed a supplemental brief on June 6, 2007, noting that the United States had invoked the OAS Democratic Charter on June 4. The United States invoked it against Venezuela because the Venezuelan government closed down a major broadcasting station. Thanks to Michael Richardson for this news.

Center for Competitive Democracy Will File Amicus Brief in Pennsylvania Ballot Access Appeal

Posted on by June 8, 2007
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The Pennsylvania constitutional ballot access case Rogers v Corbett will soon be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the case that challenges Pennsylvania law that says that even if a party meets the state’s definition of “party” (by having polled 2% of the vote in the last election), it can’t be on the ballot automatically unless it has registration of 15% of the state total.

The Center for Competitive Democracy plans to file an amicus curiae brief, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Rogers v Corbett. The Center for Competitive Democracy is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2005. Its mission is to strengthen American democracy by increasing electoral competition. The Center’s amicus brief will probably be filed not only on its own behalf, but on behalf of some individual Pennsylvania voters who cast write-in votes in November 2006 for the nominees of the various parties that were kept off the ballot, and then discovered that Pennsylvania elections officials had not counted those write-ins. Thus, Pennsylvania’s system of excluding all statewide minor party candidates in 2006 not only injured those parties and their candidates, but it also deprived some voters of their right to vote. Pennsylvania law requires that all write-ins be counted and canvassed, but the law is routinely ignored in many counties.

California Assembly Passes Discriminatory Public Funding Bill

Posted on by June 7, 2007
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On June 7, the California Assembly passed AB 583 by 45-34. It provides for public funding for elections for state office. It is moderately discriminatory against minor party members, and severely discriminatory against independent candidates. The bill was amended so that it would only apply to three offices in 2010: Governor, one State Senate race, and one Assembly race.

Delaware Committee Passes Anti-Fusion Bill

Posted on by June 7, 2007
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On June 7, the Delaware House Administration Committee passed HB 177. It outlaws fusion. Under current law, fusion is legal in Delaware, and had been used in 2006 in one state legislative race.

If this bill is eventually signed into law, Delaware will follow in the footsteps of Arkansas, which had had legal fusion for decades, but no one ever used it. In 1996 the Arkansas Reform Party jointly nominated a legislative candidate who was also the Republican Party nominee. That reminded the Arkansas legislature that fusion was legal. So, the following year, the legislature abolished it. Another state that recently abolished fusion is South Dakota.

Missouri Legislature Adjourns Without Passing Either the Good or the Bad Ballot Access Bills

Posted on by June 7, 2007
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The Missouri legislature adjourned without passing any bills to alter ballot access. The bills to force independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in March (even though their petition isn’t due until July) all failed. That is good news.

Unfortunately, the bill to fix the drafting error in the new party petition also failed to pass. The law on how new parties get on the ballot was substantially improved in 1993. Unfortunately, due to a drafting error in 1993, the law still says that new party petitions must include a list of presidential elector candidates. This is peculiar, because the law also says that a party chooses all its candidates, for all office, by convention after it turns in its petition. This development is bad news for the Missouri Constitution Party, since its party petition (currently being circulated) doesn’t include the names of any candidates for presidential elector. It is possible that the Secretary of State might overlook this, since everyone agrees that the requirement is an inadvertent error.