On August 18, the Texas Republican Party united behind Shelley Sekula-Gibbs for US House, 22nd district. She will be a write-in candidate. The only candidates on the ballot are a Democrat and a Libertarian. It appears that Texas has never elected a write-in candidate to any state office, and it is clear that Texas has never elected a write-in candidate to any federal office. On the other hand, the district is strongly Republican.
On August 17, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a law giving the Republican Party the best spot on the ballot violates the state constitution. Akins v State.
State officials say this may force them to order a delay in the Sept. 12 primary.
A US District Court Judge in Arkansas promised a decision in one week in the Green Party ballot access case. I just finished testifying in the case.
Richard Winger is out of town til Aug. 22. Postings still may be added here, but not so easily or frequently.
Ken Waters, Libertarian nominee for Arapahoe County, Colorado, sheriff, will file a ballot access lawsuit in state court on August 17. He is being kept off the ballot because he has not been a registered Libertarian for an entire year since filing. However, in 1988, a Colorado state court ruled that political parties have a Freedom of Association right to accept candidates who have not been members of their own party for an entire year. The Libertarian Party of Colorado has a bylaw, setting the prior affiliation period at only 3 months, a requirement that Waters meets.
The Colorado election code gives qualified major parties the right to set a shorter affiliation period. But due to a flaw in drafting the qualified minor party law in 1998, that protection was not extended to qualified minor parties. The lawsuit will argue that the same protection won by the Democratic Party in 1988 should be extended to qualified minor parties as well.
