Ruth Marcus, deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post, writes here that the 14th amendment, section 3, should not be used “to prevent Americans from voting to elect the candidate of their choice.” She hopes the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reverses the Colorado State Supreme Court decision Anderson v Griswold.
Both the Libertarian Party and the Green Party are circulating independent presidential petitions in Ohio. Because neither party has yet chosen national nominees, each is using stand-ins on the petitions. Ohio law explicitly allows stand-ins, who will resign from the ticket when the actual nominees are known.
The Libertarian petition now carries the names of Tricia Sprankle for president and Ken Moellman for vice-president.
The Green petition has Jill Stein for president and Anita Rios for vice-president.
The Ohio independent petition required 5,000 signatures, but the party petition requires 40,345. Therefore, each party is using the easier method, although unfortunately candidates who use the independent petition cannot have the party label on the ballot. The only qualified parties in Ohio in 2024 will probably be Republican, Democratic, and No Labels. The No Labels Party submitted its party petition over eight months ago and the state still hasn’t said if it is valid, although it is very likely the state will make that determination before the end of the year. No Labels submitted more than twice as many signatures as were required.
On December 20, California State Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) said he will soon introduce a bill to enable the California Secretary of State to adjudicate whether presidential candidates are eligible, and if the Secretary of State determines the candidate is ineligible, to remove that person from any ballot.
Min hopes that his bill passes by a two-thirds vote in each house, which would enable it to take effect immediately, so as to affect the November 2024 ballot. Democrats do have a two-thirds majority in each house of the California legislature. Thanks to Eric Wong for this news.
On December 19, California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, asked the California Secretary of State to remove Donald Trump from the California Republican presidential primary ballot. See this story.
California is the only state that ever passed a law, requiring presidential candidates to reveal their tax returns or to be barred from ballots. That law was held unconstitutional in the State Supreme Court (unanimously), and was also invalidated by a U.S. District Court. The law had been aimed at Trump.
