Pennsylvania State Court Upholds Ban on Non-Member of Party Circulating a Petition to Put a Candidate on a Primary Ballot

Posted on by May 8, 2023
50

On April 6, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court upheld a law that does not permit a non-member of a party to circulate a petition to place a candidate on a primary ballot, even when the petitioner is the candidate! In re Nomination Petition of Kimberly Wheeler, 293 C.D. 2023. Pennsylvania allows a candidate for School Director to appear on the primary ballots of more than one party. In other words, Pennsylvania permits fusion for School Director elections. The candidate, running for that office in Souderton, therefore circulated her own petition to get on the Democratic primary ballot, as well as the Republican primary ballot. She is a registered Republican. Her petition to be on the Democratic ballot was invalidated on the grounds that she cannot circulate her own Democratic petition because she is a Republican. So although she had enough signatures for her Democratic petition, the petition was invalid because of her own personal party membership.

Here is the 14-page opinion.

The Court said the burden on her was slight, because she only needed ten signatures to be on the Democratic ballot, and she should have had a registered Democrat circulate her Democratic petition. Thanks to Adam Bonin for the link.

No Labels Commentary on ABC-Washington Post Poll That Shows Donald Trump Beating Joe Biden

Posted on by May 7, 2023
20

No Labels is publicizing the ABC-Washington Post poll released on May 7 that shows in a two-person race between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, Trump would win. No Labels has this to say about the poll:

“Still think our 2024 presidential election insurance policy is a bad idea?
That is an impossible position to maintain after reading the new ABC News/Washington Post poll.
This is one of the most respected surveys in the country – not partisan or slanted, and certainly not pro-Trump.
And yet this new data makes the following clear: Trump is now the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination and beat Joe Biden in November 2024.

In a head-to-head matchup against DONALD TRUMP in 2024:

Trump … 44%
Biden … 38%
Undecided/neither/someone else … 18%

And when undecided respondents are asked who they lean toward, Trump’s lead grows:

Trump … 49%
Biden … 42%
Neither/someone else/ wouldn’t vote … 8%

The critics of our insurance policy (whether well-meaning and misguided or disingenuous and conniving) would have you believe they are sure it will be a Biden-Trump rematch and they know who would win that contest in a two-way race.

If you agree with that point of view, this poll should be deeply unsettling.

I urge you to read the whole survey here, but here are some of the most salient points:

When asked who they would support in 2024, 44 percent of voting-age adults say they would “definitely” or “probably” vote for Trump while 38 percent would definitely or probably vote for Biden. The remaining 18 percent are either undecided or gave another answer….”

Kansas Law that Forbade Non-Governmental Organizations from Mailing Pre-Filled Applications for a Mail Ballot is Struck Down

Posted on by May 7, 2023
Reply

On May 4, U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Vratil, a Bush Sr. appointee, struck down a 2021 Kansas law that made it illegal for non-governmental organizations to mail out applications for a mail ballot with the voter’s name and address pre-printed on the form. VoteAmerica v Schwab, 2:21cv-2253. Here is the decision.

Kansas permits mail ballots for voters who request a mail ballot. The state said the law was necessary because voters who receive the forms in the mail used the forms, even though the same voter might earlier have already requested a mail ballot. Thus, the state said, the mass mailings caused duplicate applications to be received. But the judge said that the duplication problem was not sufficient to override the First Amendment free speech provision. Also, the judge said the fact that the organization pre-printed the voter’s name and address was not itself a cause of duplicate applications. The organization pre-printed the voter’s name and address on the forms to make it easier for the voter to use the form. The voter must still sign and date the form. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.

Law Professor Mark R. Brown Publishes Detailed Account of Ohio’s Long History of Trying to Keep Third Parties Off the Ballot

Posted on by May 7, 2023
4

The Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly has this very detailed account of how Ohio has tried to keep minor parties off its ballots, for over 100 years. The article is by Law Professor Mark R. Brown, who has been active in ballot access litigation in Ohio for almost twenty years.

Ohio was unique among the populous states in the 1910’s for its severe ballot access laws. The main problem was that in 1908, Ohio raised the definition of a qualified party to a group that had polled 10% of the vote, at a time when virtually no other states had such a severe definition. It was the only populous state that had no statewide minor party or independent candidates on the ballot in 1918, nor 1922, nor 1930, for example.

The main part of the article concerns the battles in this century, particularly in 2014, when a federal court ordered the Libertarian Party put on the ballot but then Republican officials still managed to keep the party’s gubernatorial candidate off the party’s primary ballot. Because the vote test required 2% (for 2014 only; the ongoing vote test was to be 3%), and only the gubernatorial election counted, this meant that the Libertarian Party had no gubernatorial candidate and thus fell off the ballot. The article also explains the attempts by Republican officials to prevent recognizing the Libertarian Party after the 2016 election, even though its presidential nominee, Gary Johnson, on the ballot as an independent, had met the 3% vote test.