OKIES, the group of Oklahoma residents working for an initiative to improve the ballot access lawsuits, is meeting on Sunday, July 8, at 1:30 pm, in Stroud, Oklahoma. The exact location is the Best Western Stroud Motor Lodge, 1200 N. 8th Ave.
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On June 28, New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg was at a breakfast forum in Manhattan. In response to a question, he said he is enjoying being a registered independent because now he feels under no obligation to attend the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in September 2008. He said major party presidential conventions are boring. He also said neither major party stands for anything in particular. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
Two interesting election law bills pending in the Illinois legislature are still alive. They are HB 1685 (the National Popular Vote Plan) and HB 1752 (timid ballot access improvements). Both have passed both houses of the legislature in some version, but since the versions passed by each house are not the same, further legislative action is needed. The regular legislative session is over, but these two bills (along with many other bills) are eligible to be considered in the special session. The special session may last for many more weeks. The legislative webpage, which says that these two bills must be enacted by June 30, is not up-to-date.
On June 27, Pennsylvania’s minor parties asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the ballot access case that was filed last year. The case is Rogers v Cortes, no. 06-1721.
The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t accepted a ballot access case brought by a minor party or an independent candidate since 1992. It has repeatedly denied cert petitions filed by minor party and independent candidates since 1992. Cases the Court refused to hear (since 1992) came from Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
The recent Pennsylvania case involves the fact that Pennsylvania even excludes parties from the ballot that meet the state’s definition of “political party”, unless those parties have registration membership of 15% of the state total. If the Pennsylvania system existed in the District of Columbia and in Massachusetts, even the Republican Party would be off the ballot, since it doesn’t have registration as high as 15% in those two jurisdictions.
On Saturday night at 11:04 pm (June 30), the Delaware House defeated HB 177 by 17-19. The bill would have outlawed fusion. The bill became was of the most contentious fights during the last day of the session. For more about the fight over this bill, see www.delawarewatch.blogspot.com. The Democratic Party legislative leadership was determined to pass this bill, but that Democratic leadership failed to achieve its aim.