On September 19, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against a new Georgia law that requires voters at the polls to show either a Georgia drivers license, or a Georgia state ID card. Common Cause v Billups, 4:05-cv-201, northern district, Rome division. The case was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy, a Clinton appointee.
On September 16-17, the Constitution Party national committee met in Columbus, Ohio. A resolution to expel the Nevada affiliate of the party failed to pass. The Nevada affiliate’s state platform is not quite as absolute in its condemnation of all abortions as the national platform is. Therefore, some members of the national committee wanted to expel the Nevada affiliate.
On September 18, Lenora Fulani and her allies lost their positions on the state executive committee of the New York Independence Party. The party has provision for recalling any members of that committee with a 55% vote. Fulani and her allies received 25.5% support, short of the 45% she needed. The reason for recall were statements Fulani had made in 1989 that were critical of Israel and, arguably, Jews in general.
Green Party candidates for Mayor of the Twin Cities did well on September 13 elections. In St. Paul, Elizabeth Dickinson polled 19%, and in Minneapolis Farheen Hakeem polled 14%.
On September 15, the Iowa ACLU sued Iowa on behalf of the Green and Libertarian Parties, to overturn state practices that force all voters to register as Republican, Democratic or Independent. Iowa is one of only two states that doesn’t have a blank line on the voter registration form, in the “political party” question. The other is Kansas. The case is Iowa Libertarian Party et al v Culver, federal court, 4:05cv-521. Minor parties have won on this issue in New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Colorado, but lost in Iowa and North Carolina. However, the losses in Iowa and North Carolina were many years ago, before the age of computerized voter registration records.
