Afroman, an Ohio rapper whose name was formerly Joseph Foreman, has said he intends to be an independent presidential candidate in 2024. See this story. Thanks to Mark Elworth for this news.
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Ballot Access News
December 2022 – Volume 38, Number 7
| This issue was printed on white paper. |
Table of Contents
- 2022 ELECTION RETURNS SUGGEST ELECTORAL COLLEGE COULD DAMAGE REPUBLICANS IN 2024
- PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION PASSES IN TWO CITIES
- INDIANA PROCEDURAL BALLOT ACCESS WIN
- TOP-FIVE TENTATIVELY PASSES IN NEVADA
- LAWSUIT NEWS
- OSCE NOTES GEORGIA BALLOT ACCESS
- 2022 VOTE FOR OFFICE AT TOP OF BALLOT
- VOTER REGISTRATION TOTALS
- 2024 PRESIDENTIAL PETITIONING
- MINOR PARTY PARTISAN WINS
- ONLY THIRTEEN STATES LACK A BALLOT-QUALIFIED THIRD PARTY
- NO LABELS PARTY QUALIFIES IN FLORIDA
- FEC FINALLY PUBLISHES 2020 ELECTION RETURNS BOOK
- SUBSCRIBING TO BAN WITH PAYPAL
On Friday, December 23, Congress passed S4573, the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022. The Senate had passed it on December 22 by a vote of 68-29, and the House passed it the next day by 225-201.
This is the first federal election law bill to pass since 2002, when the Help America Vote Act was passed, outlawing punchcard ballots and mechanical voting machines. The 2022 bill makes it virtually impossible for state legislatures to ever take away the right to vote from ordinary voters, in presidential elections. The January 1, 2023 print edition of Ballot Access News will have more details.
A U.S. District Court in Delaware will hold a trial April 13-14 in Adams v Carney, 1:20cv-1680. This is the case over the Delaware law that prohibits anyone except members of the two largest parties from being appointed to most judicial posts.
The state recently tried to get the case dismissed on standing grounds, but the judge rejected that attempt by the state to end the case.
On December 14, Charlene Mitchell died at the age of 92. She was the Communist Party presidential candidate in 1968. She was the first black woman whose name appeared on a government-printed ballot as a presidential candidate. Also, she was the first third party candidate ever placed on a ballot by a federal court (other than the U.S. Supreme Court). On October 2, 1968, a three-judge U.S. District Court ordered Minnesota to put her on the ballot. She had submitted the necessary 2,000 signatures, but the Secretary of State had kept her off because he believed that Congress has outlawed the Communist Party.
The case was Mitchell v Donovan, 290 F Supp 642. One of the three judges was Harry Blackmun, who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court the following year. No lower federal court, prior to that decision, had ever ordered a state to put a minor party or independent candidate on the ballot on the grounds that the law was probably unconstitutional.
Mitchell appeared on the ballot in Washington state also. The Secretary of State of Washington did not try to keep her off the ballot. She got 415 votes in Minnesota and 377 in Washington. Two states, California and Ohio, counted write-in votes for her. She got 260 in California and 23 in Ohio.
In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Minnesota’s appeal. Mitchell v Donovan, 398 U.S. 427. The Court issued a per curiam decision saying the case was not a suitable vehicle to decide whether the Communist Party really was barred by a federal law that had passed years earlier.
But in 1972, the Communist Party ran Gus Hall for president, and sued Indiana over the loyalty oath for parties, and won that case in the U.S. Supreme Court. Communist Party of Indiana v Whitcomb, 1974. Thanks to Derek Muller for the news about Mitchell’s death.