Bill Scheurer, the nominee of the Moderate Party for U.S. House in the 8th district of Illinois, is safely on the ballot. Even though Democrats fraudulently tricked him into hiring a paid petition circulator who then deliberately failed to produce any signatures (so that he didn’t have enough signatures to meet the requirement of 13,950 signatures), no one challenged his petition. Scheurer has received $35,000 in contributions from labor unions. Labor unions have refused to endorse the Democratic nominee, Melissa Bean, since she voted in favor of CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement). Scheurer is also opposed to U.S. involvement in Iraq, whereas Bean favors it.

If Scheurer gets as much as 5% of the vote, the Moderate Party will then be ballot-qualified for 2008 (but only for the purpose of running a nominee for U.S. House in the 8th district in 2008).

It seems likely that Scheurer wasn’t challenged, because he sued the individuals who tricked him, alleging fraud. Now that he is on the ballot, he will drop that lawsuit, Moderate Party v Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. However, other co-plaintiffs who were challenged will carry on the lawsuit.

On July 3, a state district court in Oklahoma upheld that state’s ballot access laws for new and minor political parties. Judge Bryon Dixon issued a one-sentence opinion, saying that since a federal court in 1988 had upheld that law, therefore that opinion controls. Of course this is not correct. The lawsuit, Libertarian Political Organization v Clingman, 04-2949 (Oklahoma County) is based on the Oklahoma Constitution, which says, “Elections shall be free and equal”. The U.S. Constitution does not have any such explicit protection. The Libertarian Party is not surprised by Judge Dixon’s one-sentence opinion, and will now appeal to the State Supreme Court.

No lower state court judge has ever ruled that a state law, regulating the number of signatures needed for a new party to get on the ballot, is unconstitutional. When minor parties and independent candidates have won such constitutional cases in state courts, they have always had to depend on that state’s highest state court to have the courage to make such a ruling. Lower state judges are always too timid.

In 2004, Oklahoma voters were the only U.S. voters who could not vote for president unless they voted for George W. Bush or John Kerry. No one else was on the ballot, and write-ins are not permitted.

The Oregon initiative to limit the general election ballot to only two choices submitted 93,154 signatures on July 7, the deadline for Oregon initiatives to qualify. 75,630 valid signatures are required. The campaign for the initiative scrupulously eliminated all duplicate names before submitting its petition, and is expressing cautious optimism that it has enough signatures, since volunteers collected most of the signatures, and volunteers usually have higher validity rates than paid circulators. The state probably won’t announce until early August whether the initiative has enough valid signatures.