On August 5, the Eleventh Circuit expedited the lawsuit People’s Party of Florida v Florida Department of State, 22-12451. This is the case that challenges the Florida law that bars a new party from having any nominees in its first election on the ballot. All the briefs will be in by August 15, Monday.
Ballot Access News
July 2022 – Volume 38, Number 2
| This issue was printed on buff paper. |
Table of Contents
On August 5, a Florida state trial court disqualified Rebekah Jones from the Democratic primary, for U.S. House, First District. The basis is that she was briefly a registered independent (from June 2021 to August 2021) in Maryland. Jones’ name is on the primary ballot, but the judge ordered election officials not to count her primary votes. See this story.
Jones did not raise the constitutional issue. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot bar parties from nominating non-members. Instead Jones disputed the evidence that she was briefly registered as an independent. The Florida law says no one can run in a primary who has not been a member of that party for one year before qualifying, and the qualifying date in 2022 was in June.
However, the constitutional issue can only be raised by a political party. For Jones to raise the constitutional issue, and win, the Democratic Party of Florida would need to be a plaintiff.
On August 5, U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever issued an opinion in North Carolina Green Party v North Carolina State Board of Elections, e.d., 5:22cv-276. It puts the Green Party’s 2022 nominees on the November ballot. Although the State Board of Elections on August 1 had recognized the Green Party as a qualified party, the candidates still weren’t on the ballot because the state law says their names must be certified by July 1 of an election year. The candidates were chosen by convention and the party had met this deadline, but the Board hadn’t recognized the party by July 1, so without this federal court order, the candidates would have missed the deadline.
The order says the July 1 deadline is a severe burden, under the circumstances of this case. The order also expresses the view that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, giving higher standing to federal laws that contradict state laws on the same subject, will not allow any state court to remove the party.
The order also grants the national Democratic Party the ability to intervene in the case, so that if the National Democratic Party wants to appeal to the Fourth Circuit, even though the Board doesn’t, the Democratic Party can do that.
The order examines the evidence concerning disputed signatures, and determines that the number of disputed signatures, when subtracted from the number of signatures submitted, does not change the State Board’s decision that there are enough valid signatures.
Every two years, Georgia holds a partisan election for a statewide office, Public Service Commissioner. On August 5, U.S. District Court Judge Steven D. Grimberg, a Trump appointee, enjoined the state from holding any future elections for Public Service Commissioner on a statewide basis. Instead, future elections for that office must be from districts. Rose v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:20cv-2921.
The state already has five districts, but the only purpose of the districts is to set up residency requirements, so that the Commission has a member from each of the five districts. The elections themselves are statewide.
The order cancels the two elections for Public Service Commissioner that were set to be held this year. The incumbents will remain in office. The basis for the order is the federal Voting Rights Act.
Switching the elections from statewide offices to district offices means that the Libertarian Party will no longer be ballot-qualified for Public Service Commissioner elections. Under the completely irrational Georgia ballot access law, parties that poll 1% of the registered voters (approximately 2% of the turnout) are on the ballot for all statewide offices, but only parties that polled 20% of the vote for President in the entire nation, or 20% for Governor of Georgia, are on the ballot for district office. A candidate for a future Public Service Commissioner district election who is not a Republican or a Democrat would need approximately 80,000 signatures.
