The reelection campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has selected an Indian-American attorney to be its ballot access attorney. Here is a story on this.
This news seems to be getting a lot of play in Indian online news sources, but not so much in US media.
This seems a somewhat unusual move by a major party candidate. One cannot help but wonder that the appointment is more about trying to keep the Green Party and No Labels off state ballots than the Biden/Harris ticket on ballots.
On August 8, the Oregon Secretary of State determined that ten incumbent State Senators, all Republicans, can’t run for re-election because of a new constitutional amendment that bars legislators from running for re-election if they had at least ten unexcused absences. See this story.
The Republican Senators believe that the Secretary of State misunderstands the law, and there will probably be a lawsuit. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.
On August 10, the Florida Secretary of State determined that the No Labels presidential petition is valid. No Labels became a qualified party in Florida in 2022. However, under a law passed in 2011, a qualified party can’t be on for president unless it is recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a “national committee”, or unless it submits a petition signed by 1% of the number of registered voters. No Labels has now successfully done that presidential petition, which required 145,040 signatures.
The 2011 restriction was not enforced in 2012. The Florida Secretary of State said he has no knowledge of which parties are recognized by the FEC, and therefore the law couldn’t be enforced. But in 2016, in order to keep Evan McMullin off the ballot (he was the nominee of the Independent Party of Florida), a new Secretary of State changed the policy and said the law would be enforced. He did not explain how he knew which parties are recognized by the FEC.
In 2020, the Secretary of State put the Party for Socialism and Liberation on the ballot for president, even though the PSL has never been recognized as a national committee by the FEC, and even though it did not do the huge presidential petition. The only parties that have ever been recognized by the FEC as national committees are the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Natural Law, Reform, and Socialist Parties. The 2011 law discriminates against new parties, because the FEC will never grant “national committee” status to a new party. Only parties that have already had a presidential nominee on the ballot in several states, and also congressional candidates on the ballot in several states, can qualify as “national committees.”
On August 15, three federal judges held oral argument in Singleton v Allen, n.d., 2:21cv-1291. According to this news story, the argument seemed to suggest that the judges will invalidate the new U.S. House redistricting plan passed last month.
Post-argument briefs from both sides are due August 21.
Law Professor Derek Muller has this interesting essay on ElectionLawBlog, making the case that states have the power to adjudicate presidential candidate qualifications and keep them off the ballot if the state feels they don’t meet the constitutional qualifications. However, he warns that state election officials only have the power to exclude if the state election law authorizes them to make such a decision.
The essay mentions ineligible presidential and vice-presidential candidates in U.S. history, most of them minor party nominees who were under age 35.
This subject is timely because of the discussion about former President Donald Trump and the insurrection language in the 14th amendment.
