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First-Quarter Congressional Campaign Spending Reports Now Mostly Available on FEC Web Page

April 18th, 2012

Candidates for Congress who raised or spent at least $5,000 so far are required to file with the Federal Election Commission, showing their contributors and expenditures. The quarterly candidate reports for the first three months of 2012 were due on April 15. The FEC staff is working to upload the data, and should be done within the next week, at least for U.S. House candidates. If a U.S. House candidate filed electronically, his or her report is already available. Here is the link for anyone to see a candidate’s statement. One may search for a particular candidate, or a particular race, or all the races in any particular state.

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Thomas L. Friedman Urges Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Reconsider and Run for President This Year

April 18th, 2012

Thomas L. Friedman, one of the New York Times’ best-known op-ed columnists, has this column urging Michael Bloomberg to run for President this year. Although the column does not mention Americans Elect, it is obvious that if Bloomberg did decide to run, Americans Elect would be the easiest way for him to run. Friedman emphasizes that Bloomberg doesn’t need to win for his campaign to be useful. Friedman assumes Bloomberg would be in the general election debates and that his message in those debates would vastly improve the political dialogue.

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Two Ohio Republican Legislators Ask Ohio Supreme Court to Reinstate Stringent Rules on Provisional Ballots

April 17th, 2012

On April 17, two Republican legislators in Ohio asked the Ohio Supreme Court to un-do a consent decree that the state signed several years ago, promising not to enforce certain state laws that make it difficult for provisional ballots to be considered valid. See this story.

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New Mexico State Courts are Still Holding Hearings on Who Should be on June 5 Primary Ballot

April 17th, 2012

Not all challenges to Republican and Democratic Party candidates have been settled, concerning the June 5 primary ballot. This story explains yet another case that is pending.

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Wisconsin Elections Board Rejects Challenge to “Insincere” Democratic Candidates

April 17th, 2012

On April 17, the Wisconsin State Board of Elections (which is formally named the Government Accountability Board) ruled unanimously that it has no authority to remove candidates from the upcoming Democratic primaries, in the special gubernatorial and legislative recall elections, just because those candidates aren’t loyal to the Democratic Party.

Some individuals are running in the Democratic legislative recall primaries because, by guaranteeing that there are at least two Democrats running, the state must hold a Democratic primary, and that has the indirect effect of postponing the election itself from May to June. These individuals, from all the evidence, are partisan Republicans, and the Republican Party doesn’t want the special legislative elections to be in May; instead they want them in June, at the same time as the gubernatorial recall special election.

But, Wisconsin has had an open primary since 1907, and has never had voter registration by party. See this story.

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Ninth Circuit Rules that Arizona Must Accept Federal Voter Registration Forms Without Any Extra State Questions

April 17th, 2012

On April 17, an en banc panel of the 9th circuit ruled that federal postcard voter registration forms, authorized in 1993 by Congress, must be accepted as valid by Arizona. Arizona did not dispute that the federal voter registration postcard forms are valid, but insisted that it would not accept the forms without answers to extra questions mandated by the state.

Specifically, the state wanted the federal voter registration forms to include proof that the voter is a citizen. Arizona insisted that the federal forms include the voter’s Arizona state drivers license number or other state-approved ID. Arizona said that if the voter didn’t have such documents, he or she must attach proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or a copy of a U.S. passport. But the Ninth Circuit said that when Congress passed the “Motor Voter” Act in 1993, which authorized the federal voter registration form, it did not intend for states to have the authority to add to the required information. The decision points out that Congress wanted to simplify voter registration, and attaching bulky documents to the postcard form mean that the postcard and its attachments must be enclosed in an envelope.

The decision hinges on the “Elections Clause”, the part of the original U.S. Constitution contained in Article One that says the federal government may, at any time, overrule state election laws on congressional elections. The decision is Gonzalez v State of Arizona, and has been pending in one federal court or another since 2005. The decision also declined to invalidate Arizona’s law that requires voters at the polls to show photo government-ID, but said that conceivably, with more evidence, that law might perhaps someday be held invalid. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

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John Wolfe, Jr. Plans to Sue Louisiana Democratic Party to Recognize His 3 Delegates to Democratic National Convention

April 17th, 2012

John Wolfe, Jr., who won enough popular votes in the March 24 Louisiana Democratic presidential primary to receive three delegates to the Democratic National Convention, plans to sue the state Democratic Party because it won’t recognize his three delegates. See this story. After the primary was over, Wolfe appointed three delegates, but the state party says he should have appointed them late last year. Thanks to Randall Hayes for the link.

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Sixth Circuit Clears Way for November 2010 Ohio Ballots to be Counted in Juvenile Court Race

April 17th, 2012

On April 16, the 6th circuit refused to stay the U.S. District Court order in Hunter v Hamilton County Board of Elections, 12-3224. This is the long-running election dispute in Cincinnati, Ohio, over whether certain provisional ballots in a November 2010 partisan race for Juvenile Court Judge should be counted. The vote was 2-1. Judges Karen Moore and R. Guy Cole, Clinton appointees, were in the majority. Dissenting is Judge John M. Rogers, a Bush Jr. appointee. Here is the brief order. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

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Colorado Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case Over Releasing Ballots After an Election

April 17th, 2012

On April 16, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal brought by the city of Aspen, over whether ballots can be released for public inspection after an election is over (assuming nothing identifies which voter cast which ballot). The city had been waiting since November 10, 2011, for the Colorado Supreme Court to say whether it would hear this case.

The Colorado State Appeals Court had ruled that activists concerned with the reliability of vote-counting machines have a right to examine ballots, after the election is over and elections officials have finished counting them. The city is fighting that ruling. See this story.

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Alabama Republican Party State Chair Asks Legislature to Defeat Ballot Access Reform Bill

April 17th, 2012

This Gadsden (Alabama) Times article says that last week, Bill Armistead, chair of the Alabama Republican Party, wrote all Alabama Republican legislators and asked them not to support SB 15. SB 15 lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates and newly-qualifying political parties.

The letter says that minor party and independent candidates should be kept off the ballot because “they can’t win”. However, in May 2011, in a special legislative race for the State House, district 105, a Constitution Party nominee did get on the ballot and polled 46.02% of the vote in a two-person race. Also in 1988 the Libertarian Party elected a nominee to local partisan office in Lee County, and in 1994 the Patriot Party elected a County Commissioner in a partisan election in Greene County.

It is especially egregious for the Republican Party of Alabama to oppose letting independent and minor party candidates on the general election ballot, because the Alabama major parties have the statutory right to block anyone from running in their primaries if the party feels that the candidate is not “loyal” to that major party. Every year, either the Alabama Republican Party, or the Alabama Democratic Party, blocks candidates from its primary ballot because it doesn’t like their political behavior. In Alabama, candidates running in partisan primaries file with the party, not with elections officials. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for the link.

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