On December 1, the U.S. House expelled Congressman George Santos, who had represented New York’s Third District, on Long Island. The special election to fill his seat will be in February. New York law permits party committees to choose nominees in special elections, so no primary need be held. See this Politico story about the process.
The State of Utah officially certified the Forward Party this week, which becomes the eighth political party formally recognized by that state.
Here is a story on this.
On December 1, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor died. She had been one of the last justices to write anything favorable about minor parties. In 2005, in Clingman v Beaver, she wrote, “Although the State has a role to play in regulating elections, it is not a wholly independent or neutral arbiter. Rather, the State is itself controlled by the political party or parties in power, which presumably have an incentive to shape the rules of the electoral game to their own benefit…As such restrictions become more severe, and particularly where they have discriminatory effects, there is increasing cause for concern that those in power may be using electoral rules to erect barriers to electoral competition. In such cases, applying heightened scrutiny helps to ensure that such limitations are truly justified and that the State’s asserted interests are not merely a pretext for exclusionary or anticompetitive restrictions.”
Clingman v Beaver was not a ballot access case. It was a Libertarian Party case on the ability of parties to control their own nomination process. But O’Connor as well as Justice John Paul Stevens were moved to write about ballot access restrictions. Justice Stephen Breyer co-signed the O’Connor language quoted above.
No full decision of the U.S. Supreme Court since then has talked about minor party or independent candidate ballot access.
Florida, Georgia, and Minnesota are the only states in which no one can get on a major party primary ballot unless the party wants them on. Georgia Democrats have chosen President Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, and Marianne Williamson. But Florida Democrats have chosen only Biden.
When there is only one name on a primary ballot, Florida doesn’t hold the primary for that office. So the Florida Democratic Party will not be held.
The Maine Secretary of State has kindly released the November 30, 2023 registration data, even though it is not on the state’s website yet. These totals include active and inactive voters; the active total alone is still not available, so comparison with past data is not too meaningful.
Democratic: 400,660; Republican 321,615; Green Independent 47,136; No Labels 8,246; Libertarian 3,185; Forward 31; independent and miscellaneous 367,264; total 1,148,146.
