Ohio Independent Legislator Removed from General Election Ballot

Posted on by September 10, 2022
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For a few months, Ohio has had an independent state representative, Shayla Davis. She was appointed to the seat earlier this year. On August 9, the Secretary of State removed her from the November ballot. He ruled that she isn’t a true independent, because she has been too closely associated with the Democratic Party. Otherwise she would have been on the ballot, because her petition was valid.

Ohio law on who can qualify as an independent candidate is hopelessly vague. Ohio does not have registration by party, yet bars independent candidates if they have too much connection to a ballot-qualified party. This often leads to highly arbitrary decisions.

Missouri State Court Keeps Statewide Initiative on Ballot

Posted on by September 22, 2022
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On September 9, a Missouri state trial court issued a ruling that keeps the marijuana statewide initiative on the ballot. Sweeney v Ashcroft. On September 12, the State Court of Appeals affirmed that decision, case no. WD85679. Here is the State Appeals Court decision.

Originally the Missouri county election officials had found the initiative didn’t have enough valid signatures. But then the Secretary of State reviewed the work of the counties, and revalidated enough signatures. Then the challenger had sued the Secretary of State, arguing that the Secretary overstepped his authority. But the court said the Secretary of State is the ultimate decider. The challenger says he will appeal. See this article. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.

North Dakota Supreme Court Unanimously Rules that Initiative Rejected by the Secretary of State Did Have Enough Valid Signatures

Posted on by September 9, 2022
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On September 7, the North Dakota Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Hendrix v Jaeger, 2022 ND 168. Here is the Opinion. The ruling restores a statewide term limits initiative to the ballot.

The initiative concerns term limits for the legislature and the Governor. It needed 31,164 signatures, and proponents submitted 46,366 signatures. But the Secretary of State invalidated the petition. The Secretary rejected all the sheets notarized by one particular Notary Public, which put it below the requirement. The Secretary of State invalidated all those sheets because the Secretary of State believed that the Notary had notarized several sheets allegedly signed by the same circulator, yet on those several sheets, the signature of the circulator varied widely from one sheet to the next.

The Supreme Court reviewed many somewhat similar cases from other state courts, and found that those other precedents all rejected the concept of rejecting all the signatures handled by one particular notary, just because it appeared the notary had notarized one or a few particular sheets that should not have been considered valid.