On September 29, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold filed this brief on Anderson v Griswold, 2023cv-32577, Denver District Court. This is the lawsuit on whether former President Donald Trump should be on the March 2024 Colorado Republican primary ballot. On page five the Secretary says, “The Secretary agrees that constitutionally ineligible candidates should not be included on a ballot.”

The Secretary of State cites nothing for this statement, and ignores Colorado and national history. In 1972 Colorado put Linda Jenness on its November ballot, and she was only 33 years old at the time. She was the Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate that year and she made no secret of her age.

The only states that have never printed the name of an ineligible presidential or vice-presidential candidate on the general election ballot are Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, and Oklahoma. In 1892, all states in the union at that time printed the name of the Prohibition Party vice-presidential candidate on the ballot, and he was only age 33 and campaigned making frequent mention of his age. The only 1892 exception was South Dakota, the only state in which the Prohibition Party failed to get on the ballot that year. However in 1972, South Dakota printed Linda Jenness’ name on the ballot.

As to the states that weren’t yet in the union in 1892, Utah printed Eugene Puryear, the name of the Party for Socialism & Liberation’s vice-presidential candidate in 2008 and he was under-age. New Mexico printed Linda Jenness’ name on the ballot in 1972.

Here is a Sunday, October 8 New York Times article on Biden allies trying to keep third parties and independent candidates off states’ ballots in 2024.

Generally, the New York Times is behind a paywall, but I was able to read the entire article.

Nowhere in the article is the solution of Ranked Choice Voting or other alternative voting systems mentioned.

Richard Winger is right. Something is terribly wrong with the political culture in the United States. Minor parties exist in Canada and the United Kingdom that threaten to “take votes” from major parties, yet there are no organized efforts to boot those parties and candidates from ballots.

On Saturday, October 7, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1227, which lets Santa Clara County, the most populous county in northern California, use ranked choice voting for elections for county offices, which are all non-partisan.

This appears to be the first time that Newsom has signed a bill that promotes ranked choice voting. In the past he has repeatedly vetoed bills letting non-charter cities use RCV. Thanks to Jim Lindsay for this news.