This news story about the criticism of No Labels and its registration drive to get on the ballot in Maine starts with a large picture of the Maine voter registration form. The Secretary of State has charged that some workers for No Labels have tricked applicants into registering into the party. But as one looks at the form, it is difficult to understand how anyone would not understand the purpose of the form.
Currently, Maine uses ranked choice voting for federal office in both primaries and general elections. But for state office, ranked choice voting is only used for primaries, not general elections. A proposed constitutional amendment to allow ranked choice in general elections for state office has advanced. LD 1917 passed the joint Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on May 18. Thanks to Fairvote for this news.
If the bill passes the legislature, then the voters would vote on it. The reason Maine has a different policy for state office than for federal office is that several years ago, the State Supreme Court ruled that using ranked choice voting for state office in general elections violates the State Constitution. So the proposal would amend the State Constitution.
The venerable blog Scotusblog (meaning “Supreme Court of the U.S. blog) has chosen Mazo v Way, 22-1033, as a cert petition with a fair chance of being granted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Mazo v Way challenges the New Jersey law that allows a primary candidate to choose a ballot label, up to six words, but which restricts which words the candidate may choose.
The lower federal courts had upheld the law. The plaintiff-candidates have hired Paul Clement to be their attorney in the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a former Solicitor General of the United States. Here is his wikipedia page. Here is the cert petition.
A book will soon be published called “The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law.” It will have a chapter by Law Professor Derek Muller on ballot access laws.
This book should not be confused with an older book, “The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior”, which had no content relating to ballot access laws.
The Constitution Party of Alaska has had its presidential petition as a Limited Political Party approved by the Alaska Division of Elections. The required number of valid signatures of Alaska registered voters was 3,614, so that party’s 2024 presidential ticket will appear on the ballot in Alaska.
