On October 2, the Arkansas Secretary of State said that the Libertarian Party’s petition to be a qualified party (but just for the purpose of being qualified for president) is valid. That type of petition needs 1,000 signatures. The party submitted approximately 1,900. This is the first minor party ballot access petition that has been completed and found sufficient, in calendar year 2007 so far.
On October 1, the 4th circuit affirmed a lower court decision, that if the Republican Party doesn’t want an open primary (and it is a circumstance in which the party is forced to nominate by primary), it is free to close its primary. The case is Miller v Brown.
Virginia has a unique law. The law says generally, parties may choose to nominate by convention or primary. But, if the party has an incumbent for a particular office who is running for re-election, he or she has the power to choose whether the party will use a convention or a primary. The ruling only applies to instances when the Republican Party’s incumbent has forced the party to use a primary. The ruling says, if the Republican Party is being forced to nominate by primary, then it can enforce a bylaw that excludes voters who have voted in a Democratic primary in the last 5 years (unless that voter signs an oath of allegience to the Republican Party).
New Jersey Libertarian Jason Scheurer has qualified for public funding under New Jersey’s new pilot program for “Clean Elections” in legislative races. The pilot program only exists in 3 legislative districts. Scheurer needed $10 contributions from at least 400 voters in his district. It has been confirmed that he has more than 417. He knocked on 8,000 doors in order to achieve this. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for this news. The New Jersey pilot program is discriminatory. Scheurer will receive at least $21,893, but if he were a Republican or a Democrat, he would have received many times more money. The ACLU lawsuit against the discriminatory aspects of the Connecticut “clean elections” law (which doesn’t start until 2008) is still pending. A decision is expected any day now.
Kentucky holds its election for statewide executive positions on November 6, 2007. Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson is running for re-election. At a debate on September 29 between him and his Democratic opponent, Grayson came in strongly in favor of eliminating Kentucky’s straight-ticket device. The number of states with the device has slowly been shrinking. New Hampshire eliminated it this year.
On October 1, the 10th circuit held a hearing in Libertarian Party of New Mexico v Secretary of State. The case concerns whether New Mexico has any valid state interest in requiring dual petitions…in other words, to require a new party to complete one petition to qualify itself, and then completely separate petitions for each of its nominees. New Mexico is the only state with a system like this; a similar system in Maryland was held unconstitutional in 2003.
In 2006, a U.S. District Court in New Mexico had upheld the law without even permitting evidence to be introduced. The ACLU appealed to the 10th circuit on the procedural issue of whether the lower court should have allowed evidence. Thus, the October 1 hearing was largely about court procedure, rather than substance. It appeared to go well for the Libertarian Party. If the party wins in the 10th circuit, the case would be returned to the lower court for evidence-gathering.
