The lawsuit Swanson v Bennett, which challenges Alabama ballot access laws, had been tentatively set for a hearing in the 11th circuit in January 2007. However, it has been postponed, and will be heard in February or possibly even a later month. The case challenges the 3% petition, and the June deadline.
Ballot Access News has just learned that Barbara Fleischauer was elected to the West Virginia legislature last month. She served in the legislature in the past, but had been defeated for re-election in 2004. She is a Democrat who believes strongly that West Virginia ballot access laws are too harsh. She intends to re-submit her past bill, moving the petition deadline for minor party and independent candidates (for office other than president) from May to August (the presidential petition deadline is already in August). She is the wife of Law Professor Bob Bastress, who has won several important ballot access cases against West Virginia during the past 26 years.
In the meantime, the Libertarian Party lawsuit against that deadline is pending in the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Ohio House Bill 638, which lets candidates who use the independent petition procedure choose a partisan label (which would then be printed on the November ballot next to the candidate’s name) could conceivably be enacted this month. The 2005-2006 session of the legislature is sitting at least until December 21. The bill had a favorable hearing last week. Bills tend to move very fast when a legislature is in its last few days.
The North Carolina Libertarian Party’s ballot access lawsuit is set for a trial on April 2, 2007, in state court in Raleigh. Earlier this year the State Board of Elections had tried to get the court to eliminate this trial, but the Board lost that motion.
Doug Bailey, one of the co-founders of Unity.08, has told the Daily Camera newspaper of Boulder, Colorado, that the group will nominate its presidential and vice-presidential candidates in June 2008. Bailey also said that the 2008 Democratic and Republican Party nominees cannot be the nominees of Unity.08. Earlier, some had speculated that the Unity.08 process might nominate either the Republican Party national ticket, or the Democratic Party national ticket. But Bailey has ruled out this scenario.
