Elaine Brown, Green Party nominee for Mayor of Brunswick, will file a lawsuit to get on the ballot on Monday, Oct. 24. The issue is whether she meets the one-year residency requirement for Mayoral candidates.
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On October 21, a lower New York state court ruled that the Libertarian nominees, not the Socialist Workers Party nominees, should have the sixth line on the New York city ballot next month. The law provides that the qualified parties get the left-hand columns. New York has five qualified parties, so they fill up the 5 left-most columns.
The unqualified parties get the remaining columns, in the order in which they turn in their petitions. The Libertarians had turned in a petition for one nominee (for an office covering just part of New York city), earlier than any other unqualified party had turned in any petitions.
The Socialist Workers Party had filed next, for all of its nominees. Then, the Libertarians had turned in their remaining petitions, including the petition for the city-wide nominees. The City Board of Elections gave the sixth column to the Socialist Workers Party and the seventh column to the Libertarian Party. But the court reversed the decision. The law says the parties are listed in the order in which “the first candidate” of a group filed, not “the first candidate for Mayor”. The court applied these words literally.
The Libertarian Party of New Mexico has collected 6,800 signatures on its petition to get back on the ballot. Since 3,872 are required, this is probably enough. This is the first petition drive the Libertarian Party has completed anywhere in the U.S. in a year. By contrast, the Green Party has completed two during the last year (Louisiana and Utah).
Gloria Mattera, Green Party nominee for Boro President of Brooklyn, has almost raised the needed $50,000 in small donations needed for her to qualify for public campaign funds. If she succeeds, she will receive $200,000. For more information, see www.electgloria.org.
On October 20, a lower state court in North Carolina refused to order Libertarian Party nominees for city office onto the November 8, 2005 ballots. The judge did not explain his decision. A trial will be held next year in this same case, on whether the North Carolina ballot access laws for new parties violate the state Constitution.