Roy Frankhouser Dies

May 16th, 2009

On May 15, Roy E. Frankhouser died at his home in Pennsylvania at the age of 69. See this story in the Reading Eagle. He had been a KKK leader, and he had been convicted in February 1988 for advising Lyndon LaRouche on how to obstruct a federal grand jury probe into LaRouche’s fundraising. LaRouche himself was convicted in December 1988 for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and tax code violations.



Two Maine Ballot Access-Related Bills Make Headway

May 16th, 2009

Two bills affecting minor parties and independent candidates have made some headway in Maine. LD 1169 passed the Joint Committee on State and Local Government on May 6, and LD 1041 passed the same committee on May 13.

LD 1169 deletes the requirement that a voter casting a write-in vote must also write-in the name of that candidate’s town or city, and makes other improvements for write-in candidates. LD 1041 alters the law on how a qualified party remains on the ballot. Existing law requires it to have polled 5% for the office at the top of the ticket at either of the last two elections. The bill says a party remains on the ballot if it has 10,000 registered members who voted in the last general election. The only ballot-qualified party besides the Democratic and Republican Parties is the Green Party, which has slightly over 31,000 registered voters, three-fourths of whom voted in the 2008 general election.

No North Carolina Election Law Bills of Interest Can Pass This Year

May 16th, 2009

North Carolina legislative rules require bills to have passed their house of origin this year by the evening of May 14. Otherwise, they cannot pass this year, although they could still pass next year. No election law bills of interest can pass this year. Bills that did not meet the deadline include S731, the ballot access bill; H47, to establish the initiative; and S150, to move the presidential primary from May to February. Proposed state constitutional amendments to extend the term of state legislators also failed to move.

Two lawsuits, challenging North Carolina’s ballot access laws, are pending. A decision in the lawsuit that challenges the rules for minor parties is expected this summer from the State Appeals Court. The federal case, challenging the independent candidate requirements for U.S. House, is undergoing discovery.

Alabama Legislature Convenes Without Passing Election Law Bills

May 16th, 2009

The Alabama legislature adjourned on May 15 without passing any election law bills of interest. Most surprisingly, even HB 711 failed to pass. HB 711 set up a pilot project for internet voting for overseas voters. It had passed the House 89-3 on April 16, and had passed the Senate unanimously on April 30. But the Senate had added a campaign finance provision. When the bill went to conference committee, the committee removed the campaign finance provision, but then it was too late to send the bill back to the Senate. See this article.

Other election law bills that failed to pass include the ballot access bill, HB 72; the bill to set up a procedure by which write-in candidates who want their write-ins talllied file a declaration of write-in candidacy; and a bill to apportion presidential electors according to what percentage of the popular vote within Alabama they received. Thanks to Ed Still’s VoteLawBlog for the link about HB 711.

Alan Keyes Arrested Again

May 15th, 2009

On May 15, Alan Keyes, the 2008 presidential candidate of America’s Independent Party, was again arrested for trespassing at Notre Dame University. See this story. He had been arrested on the same charge on May 8.

Missouri Legislature Adjourns, Having Passed No Election Law Bills of Interest

May 15th, 2009

On May 15, the Missouri legislature adjourned. No election law bills of interest to most readers of this blog passed this year. The bill that came closest to passing was a bill to make it easier to qualify initiatives. Originally known as SB569, its contents were placed into HB228. It passed the House on April 23 but did not progress through the Senate.

Bills to make it more difficult to qualify initiatives, and to move the independent candidate petition deadline from July to March, failed to pass. A bill to bring back the straight-ticket device failed to pass.

Unfortunately, a bill to improve petitioning for new parties also failed to pass. It was SB 70, and it would have corrected a typographical error in the 1993 ballot access reform bill. Although generally petitions to qualify a new party in Missouri do not need to name that party’s nominees, due to a drafting error, if the party wants to run a candidate for president, the presidential candidate and also candidates for presidential elector must be shown on the petition. However, stand-in presidential candidates are permitted on the petition.

Bills to let cities and counties use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections failed to pass. Thanks to Ken Bush for some of the news in this post.

Minnesota Supreme Court Hears Coleman v Franken on June 1

May 15th, 2009

The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Coleman v Franken, A09-697, on Monday, June 1. The issue is whether 4,400 absentee ballots from last year’s U.S. Senate election should be counted. Because Franken leads in the official recount by 312 votes, his attorneys argue that lower courts were correct to reject those uncounted absentee ballots. Even if the Supreme Court reverses the lower court and allows some or all of the uncounted absentees to be counted, no one knows whether counting them would be good or bad for Coleman. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Illinois Bill, Restricting Nominations of Qualified Parties, Passes Senate

May 15th, 2009

On May 15, the Illinois Senate unanimously passed HB 723, which requires qualified parties that nominate after the primary (by party committee) to submit a petition of approximately one-half of 1% of the last vote cast for that party in the last general election, for each nominee. The bill needs to go back to the House for another vote, since the Senate version differs from the House version. The House version was worse; it required petitions of 5% of the last vote cast.

Oklahoma Ballot Access Lobbying Update

May 15th, 2009

The speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives has agreed to meet with the lobbyist for the Oklahoma ballot access bill on Monday morning. The lobbyist is a professional, and he has had great success so far, because HB 1072 has passed both houses of the legislature, but it needs to go through the conference committee, since the version of the bill in each house differs. Bill Redpath, national chair of the Libertarian Party, has made a life-saving personal contribution of $1,500 to OBAR (Oklahoma Ballot Access Reform) so that the lobbyist’s bill can be paid for May.

Vermont Bill Signed, Will Put Progressive Party on Apportionment Board

May 15th, 2009

On May 12, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas signed S111. It changes the formula that determines which political parties may have a representative on the State Apportionment Board, the body that draws state legislative districts. The old law limited the Board to parties that had polled 25% for Governor in the last election. The new law includes all parties that had at least four state legislators in at least three of the preceding five legislative sessions. The change means that the Progressive Party will be included on the board. It elected six legislators in 2008, six in 2006, and six in 2004.

Although the party’s state chair ran for Governor in 2008 and placed second, his percentage was 21.8%. Also he ran as an independent, so even if he had polled as much as 25%, it wouldn’t have counted for the party, under the old law.

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Welcome to the OFFICIAL online home of Ballot Access News, a non-partisan newsletter reporting on the trials and tribulations of folks trying to put candidates on the ballot in the United States of America. There are many surprisingly restrictive ballot access laws in this country, which the average voter has no knowledge or conception of; part of our purpose here (besides reporting on progress made) is to report on these restrictive ballot access laws so that more people are aware of them. I hope you find these materials interesting and exciting; if you do, you can support the newsletter by subscribing!

Ballot Access News is edited and published by Richard Winger, the nation's leading expert on ballot access legal issues.

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  • Politics, Soviet-style by S. Philip Gordon, regarding recent ballot access issues in Georgia – the US state, not the Russian territority!

Extra Features:

Other information:

  • Here's how to subscribe to Ballot Access News!

  • Here's information on Presidential Ballot Access as well as the vote totals of recent Presidential elections.

  • Here are some other sites which may also be of interest:

    Project Vote-Smart

    Project Vote Smart is a citizens' organization dedicated to serving all Americans with accurate and unbiased information for electoral decision-making. It was inaugerated in 1992 by former US Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and other leaders. Its webpage offers information about all ballot-listed candidates for all federal and state office.
    [Added:040729]

    The ACE Project
    An interesting site concerning itself with the "Administration and Cost of Elections", including issues of fairness and regulatory approaches in various countries. They seem to be almost blind to the ways that third parties in the USA are harmed by campaign finance rules crafted for the problems characteristic of the larger parties, or the ways that third parties would be disenfranchised by various proposed rules, but this is nevertheless a useful resource, particularly for the international comparisons it makes.
    [Added:001206]

    "Unofficial" B.A.N. Page

    At first, it looks like there's not much here. But then you follow the "Charts" link, and click on one of the listed candidates, and you'll get some truly wonderful nationwide maps of voting patterns.
    [Checked:991014]

    ThirdPartyNews.net

    A site that covers news about minor parties.
    [Checked:060414]

    Third Party Central

    Collects lots of good information and links relating to various third parties into one convenient location. Nice set of writings on why one should vote third-party.
    [Checked:991014]

    Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

    A surprisingly complete listing of votes cast in Presidential elections, including numerous third-party candidates and nice maps of vote distribution by state and (on the individual state pages) by county.
    [New-URL:010309]

    D.C.'s Political Report

    Very good presentation of candidate and party information, including virtually every known third-party group in the USA. Election results, candidate information, etc.
    [Updated:991214]

    Initiative For Texas

    A group trying to establish the right to Initiative and Referendum in Texas. Their work has intriguing parallels and overlaps with ballot access work. Every page at the site seems to have some music on it, which can get annoying after awhile, but otherwise it's an interesting site.
    [Checked:991014]

    Center for Voting and Democracy

    Folks concerned with alternative voting systems, and related issues, from a moderately leftist perspective. Useful articles describing how better systems of voting and electing actually work.
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The newsletter is published by and copyright by Richard Winger.