On December 9, Muskogee, Oklahoma’s daily newspaper, the Phoenix, editorialized in favor of easing ballot access restrictions. Also, the New York Times carried a letter to the editor from former Congressman John B. Anderson, criticizing the new Connecticut public funding law.
The Iowa Secretary of State has finally responded to the lawsuit filed in mid-September by the Libertarian and Green Parties, over whether voters should be able to register into parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. However, it’s still too early to tell if the state will fight the lawsuit or talk about a settlement. The state’s only response so far is to answer the allegations in the complaint. They acknowledge there are no factual disputes.
COFOE (the Coalition for Free & Open Elections) has just mailed a letter to each of the 18 senators on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The letter asks each senator to consider questioning Judge Alito about his stand on equal treatment for minor party and independent candidates and voters. The letter points out Judge Alito’s apparent belief that government should discourage minor party and independent candidate activity. It counterpoises what he said in 1999, with what Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said that was supportive, in May 2005 (in her concurrence in Clingman v Beaver). Alito’s hearing is in January 2006.
The U.S. Senators on the Judiciary Committee are Arlen Specter, Orrin Hatch, Charles Grassley, Jon Kyl, Mike DeWine, Jeff Sessions, Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn, Tom Coburn, Sam Brownback, Patrick J. Leahy, Edward M. Kennedy, Joseph R. Biden, Herbert Kohl, Dianne Feinstein, Russell D. Feingold, Charles Schumer, and Richard J. Durbin. If you live in a state represented by one of these Senators, please consider writing a letter to that Senator, asking him or her to ask Judge Alito about his ideas on the subject of fairness for minor parties and independent candidates.
Anyone who is not already a subscriber to the paper edition of Ballot Access News, who send a copy of such a letter, may receive a free 3-month subscription. Send the copy of your letter to Richard Winger, Bx 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147.
Jim Gilchrist, American Independent (Constitution Party) nominee received 25.1% of the vote. The Republican, State Senator John Campbell, won with 44.7%; the Democrat is second with 28.0%. The Green polled 1.3% and the Libertarian polled .9%.
Gilchrist’s showing is the highest percentage received by a minor party for U.S. House (in a race with both major parties also in the race) since 1994, when A Connecticut Party polled 26.3% in the First District of Connecticut.
On November 1, the 6th circuit heard arguments in Nader v Land, over whether the Michigan Secretary of State should have put Ralph Nader on the ballot as the Reform Party nominee last year. Nader’s attorney, law professor Bruce Afran, based his argument on the US Supreme Court precedents from the 1970’s and 1980’s that protected major party presidential conventions from state election laws. Of course, those precedents only protected the national conventions from being told which delegates to seat. Afran hopes to persuade the 6th circuit that the logic of those cases means that when a national convention makes an undisputed presidential nomination, all states where that party is on the ballot must respect that decision.
In the case of the Michigan Reform Party, one faction of the state party wanted to nominate Nader, but the other faction wanted no presidential nominee. The Michigan Secretary of State refused to decide which set of state party officers were legitimate, and left all of the party’s nominees off the ballot.
Michigan argued that the case is moot, and that in any event Nader lacks standing to complain about the Reform Party nomination, since he got on the ballot as an independent last year anyway.
