On February 13, the author of Virginia HB 3157 (the bill to impose substantial filing fees on minor party and independent candidates) dropped his own bill. Therefore, the bill failed to pass the Senate Elections & Privileges Committee. Apparently the bill had been amended on the House floor to make it far more complicated, and the bill’s sponsor, irritated at the change, then lost interest in his own bill. Thanks to Roy Scheuer for these details.
On February 9, the Montana Senate passed SB 117, to have the state pay court costs in recounts. The bill is retroactive, so if it passes, Rep. Rick Jore (the Constitution Party’s lone state legislator) will be relieved of having to pay $18,000 incurred in 2004 and 2005. The vote in the Senate was 45-4. The four “no” votes included three Democrats (including Senator Mike Cooney, a former Montana Secretary of State) and one Republican.
On February 13, the Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State, to force him not to permit vote-counting machines made by eSlate Company. The case is filed in federal court in Austin and is assigned to Judge Sam Sparks. Texas Democratic Party v Williams, 07-cv-115.
The Texas Democratic Party says that if someone uses the straight-ticket device while voting on an eSlate machine, and then also votes for an individual nominee (from the same party), the machine records a blank vote for that office. For example, if a voter used the straight-ticket device to vote for all Republicans on the ballot, and then also individually voted for a particular Republican nominee, that the machine would register a blank vote for that office.
When a lawsuit is filed, alleging that a certain state law is unconstitutional, the first response from the government is always called an “answer”. Usually, court rules require an answer to be filed within a month of the filing of the lawsuit. On October 13, 2006, several minor parties filed a lawsuit against New Jersey election laws that discriminate against political parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. Finally, on February 13, 2007, a full four months later, the New Jersey Attorney General’s answer has been received by attorneys for the minor parties.
The answer is usually a boring document, but it provides an opportunity for government attorneys to concede that certain points in the lawsuit are so valid, that the government doesn’t intend to fight the lawsuit. The minor parties had already won an earlier lawsuit in 2001, called Council of Alternate Political Parties v State of New Jersey. In the 2001 lawsuit, the court had ruled that voters must be permitted to register as members of unqualified parties.
The state’s response to the 2001 lawsuit was to let voters register as members of the five specific minor parties that had brought that lawsuit, but no others. The five minor parties that had won the 2001 lawsuit were the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, and Reform Parties, so ever since 2001, voters have been able to register into those parties (as well as the Democratic and Republican Parties), but no others. The legislature has never amended the election law to provide a system for identifying which minor parties have registration rights, nor has the State Elections Division ever issued any regulations on this subject.
In the recent case, one of the issues is that voters should also be able to register into the Conservative Party of New Jersey (the Conservative Party of New Jersey is active, and regularly places candidates on the ballot). Attorneys for the recent case had thought that surely, the state would concede this point. But, the state did not even concede this point.
On February 12, the Kentucky House Elections Committee passed HB 70, which makes it easier for ex-felons to regain voting rights. Current law requires a complicated application by an ex-felon to regain the right to vote; the bill would provide that ex-felons automatically regain the right to vote. The bill excludes ex-felons who had been in prison for murder or sex crimes. Thanks to Ed Still for this news.
