Indiana Green Party Loses Ballot Access Litigation

Posted on by August 14, 2023
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On Monday, August 14, 2023, US District Court Judge James Sweeney, a Trump appointee, ruled that Indiana’s petition requirement of 2% of the last total vote for Secretary of State for a party to put a statewide minor party or independent candidate is constitutional. Indiana Green Party v Sullivan, 1:22cv-518. The 2024 petition requirement is 36,944 signatures.

The decision is only ten pages. It says that because the 2% petition was upheld in 1985, therefore it is valid. It does not say that when the 2% petition was upheld in 1984, the petition deadline was in September. Since then it has moved to June.

The decision also does not say that when the 1985 opinion was issued, the law had only been in effect for one election year, and the 1985 opinion said that in the future if the record shows that the requirement is too difficult, there might be a different conclusion.

Judge Sweeney did not mention the fact that twice, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that if a ballot access requirement is almost never successfully used, it is probably unconstitutional. Judge Sweeney did mention that no one has completed the statewide petition since 2000, but he seemed to find this fact insignificant.

It is almost certain that an appeal will be filed. Indiana is one of only four states in which the Green Party presidential nominee has never been on the ballot. The others are Georgia, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

The Libertarian Party was a co-plaintiff, but the Libertarian Party has been on the ballot continuously in Indiana since 1992, so the meaningful plaintiff is the Green Party.

U.S. District Court Invalidates Washington State Legislative Districting Plan

Posted on by August 13, 2023
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On August 10, U.S. District Court Judge Robert S. Lasnik, a Clinton appointee, determined that part of the Washington state redistricting plan passed in 2022 violates the federal Voting Rights Act. He found that the 1th district, centered in Yakima, is unfair to Latino voters.

Washington state legislative districts are not drawn by the legislature. Instead they are drawn by a bipartisan redistricting commission, consisting of two Democratic appointees and two Republican appointees. There is also a fifth member who does not vote. It is unusual for any court to strike down a redistricting plan that was prepared by a redistricting commission.

Here is the decision in Soto Palmer v Hobbs, 3:22cv-5035, western district.

Ohio Supreme Court Unanimously Keeps Abortion Initiative on the November 2023 Ballot

Posted on by August 12, 2023
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On August 11, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the abortion initiative should remain on the November 7, 2023 ballot. Giroux v Committee Representing the Petitioners, 2023-Oh-2786. Here is the opinion.

Ohio election law says that an initiative petition is supposed to list statutes that would be repealed if the initiative were to pass. The challengers to the abortion petition said the initiative should be removed from the ballot because the petitions didn’t list the laws that would be repealed if the amendment were to pass.

The Court found that statute doesn’t directly apply to most constitutional initiatives. Technically when a constitution is amended, the amendment itself does not repeal any prior statute. Both federal and state courts often determine that statutes are unconstitutional, but a judgment that a statute is unconstitutional does not repeal that law; it just means that the law is void.