On December 1, U.S. District Court Susan Dlott ruled that Ohio’s ban on paying petition circulators per signature is unconstitutional. Citizens for Tax Reform v Deters, 1:05-cv-212 (Cincinnati). The case had been filed April 1, 2005, and it took this long to get a ruling.
Texas State Senator Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) has introduced SB134, to abolish the straight-ticket device.
On December 1, a U.S. District Court struck down Virginia law that mandates open primaries, in some instances. The case is Miller v Brown, 3:05cv-266, e.d. The decision says that when a party is required to hold a primary, then it may impose restrictions on who can vote in that primary. In this particular case, one unit of the Virginia Republican Party (the party unit in one particular State Senate district) has a bylaw, saying no one who voted in any other party’s primary in the last 5 years may vote in the Republican primary, unless that person signs a loyalty pledge to the Republican Party. The decision says that the party bylaw trumps state law, but only when the party is required to hold a primary.
Virginia law lets a party choose whether to have a primary or a convention. But when the office is one in which the party already has an office-holder, then the office-holder, not the party, dictates whether the party should hold a primary or a convention for that office. So, the ruling only applies when the incumbent office-holder is forcing the party to hold a primary.
This case is historic. It is the first time a federal court has ever ruled that parties need not use an open primary, if they don’t wish to. In 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court had said that parties need not use a blanket primary if they don’t wish to, and this year the 9th circuit had said parties need not use a “top-two” primary if they don’t wish to. But those cases had relatively little impact, because so few states use blanket primaries or top-two primaries. But open primaries are very common and are used in approximately 22 states.
The outgoing Ohio Attorney General has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an extension of 60 days, to file any request that the U.S. Supreme Court review Libertarian Party of Ohio v Blackwell. In that case, on September 6, 2006, the 6th circuit had invalidated Ohio’s procedures for new and minor parties to get on the ballot. Normally, the losing side has 3 months to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision. In this instance, Ohio’s request (which is certain to be granted) will give the state another 2 months to decide whether to ask for U.S. Supreme Court review. By then the new incoming Democratic Attorney General and the new incoming Democratic Secretary of State will make the decision. The outgoing Ohio Secretary of State, and the outgoing Ohio Attorney General, are Republicans.
Maine has released approximate registration data for June 2006. It isn’t exact because a few tiny towns still haven’t reported the data. The state’s estimates for June 2006 are: Democratic 302,000; Republican 275,000; Green 26,000; independent and others 364,000. The Green percentage is 2.69%.
This contrasts with the November 2004 figures, when Maine Greens had 2.36%. The new Green figure for Maine is the highest percentage any state Green Party has ever had, of any state’s registration.
Currently, the highest registration for the Constitution Party in any state is Nevada, where it has 3.48% of that state’s registration. Best Libertarian registration is Alaska, with 1.88%. Complete registration data for all states, for all parties, will be in the January 2007 paper edition of Ballot Access News.
