A U.S. District Court will hold oral arguments in Morrison v Colley on August 30. This is the case filed by an independent candidate for U.S. House, Charlie Morrison. He turned in enough signatures to be on the ballot, but was still barred, because he had voted in the Republican primary and had run for party office. Ohio law does not clear say if these actions prevent individuals from being independent candidates. The lawsuit argues that the Ohio law, as interpreted by the Secretary of State, is hopelessly vague.

On August 2, Daily Kos reported that conservatives are responsible for paying “all but $30” of the costs for getting the Pennsylvania Green Party statewide candidates on the ballot. The truth is that Pennsylvania Green volunteers got 30,000 signatures (just as they did in 2004, when the party got on with an all-volunteer effort), and the remaining 65,000 signatures were paid circulators.

The $30 relates to the bank account of the Luzerne County Greens. There have been plenty of monetary contributions from Pennsylvania Greens themselves to their own ballot drive, but it went into the state party’s bank account.

Daily Kos should consider that the real motivation of the conservative donors who contributed to the paid petition effort was not so much to get the Green Party on the ballot, as to trick the Democrats into acting like a bully. The Democratic Party of Pennsylvania has fallen into this trap, with the announcement today that the party will challenge the Green petitions. In 2002, the Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Ed Rendell, actually signed the statewide Green Party petition, to show that the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania was confident, open-minded, and not afraid of competition. Rendell was elected. The face of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in 2006 has changed.

On August 2, the Oregon Secretary of State said that the initiative to change Oregon’s system to the “top-two” method did not have enough valid signatures. Therefore, it will not appear on the November 2006 ballot. The proposal would have required all candidates for all partisan office (except president) to run on a single primary ballot in May. Then, in November, only the two highest vote-getters would have been able to be on the ballot. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.