Ballot Access News:
The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 11 has this editorial, focusing attention on the fact that the challenge to Ralph Nader’s 2004 Pennsylvania petition was illegally carried out with state resources and state employees. Petition challenges in Pennsylvania are brought by private individuals, yet the people who challenged Nader’s petition used government assets. Nader [...]

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From Ballot Access News:

The Oklahoman for March 13 has two letters to the editor, advocating that the legislature pass HB 1072, the ballot access bill. See them at this link. Thanks to Micah Gamino for the link.
One of the letters:
Regarding “Access endeavor” (ScissorTales, March 6): It’s not entirely accurate that Oklahoma’s lawmakers have made [...]

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An interesting article from Ballot Access News:

The election for California Secretary of State has three well-known election law activists this year, although the type of election law activism each has engaged in are very different from each other.
Christina Tobin is the only candidate seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. Here is her web page. She [...]

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Ballot Access News:
The Green Party of New Mexico has started circulating its petition to get itself back on the ballot, and it has 500 signatures already. The party needs 4,151 signatures by April 1.
If New Mexico had a rational election law to determine which parties are on the ballot automatically, that law would already recognize [...]

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Ballot Access News:
On February 17, a U.S. District Magistrate issued a 30-page opinion, upholding New Hampshire’s policy of not allowing stand-ins on presidential petitions, and also upholding New Hampshire’s policy of not having any procedure by which an unqualified party may protect its name from use by independent candidates who choose the party label as [...]

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Ballot Access News:
On January 15, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton granted injunctive relief to the Arizona Green Party on two issues. The order permits the party to use out-of-state circulators for its petition to get itself on the ballot. Also, the order extends the deadline from February 25 to March 11. The party had [...]

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Ballot Access News:
Several blogs that cover politics and election law have linked to this New York Times story about Joseph Kennedy, the Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate in the January 19, 2010 special election in Massachusetts.
In my memory, the New York Times has never before devoted so much space to any Libertarian candidate for [...]

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Ballot Access News:
On January 5, Georgia held a special election to fill the vacant State Senate seat, 22nd district. Georgia special elections put party labels on the ballot, but parties don’t have nominees. Individuals file by paying a filing fee, but no petition is needed. Three Democrats and one Libertarian appeared on the ballot.
The results: [...]

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Posted by Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:

As the year 2010 commences, Ballot Access News is 25 years old. I wish to thank everyone who reads Ballot Access News, and especially to thank those of you who post comments. As far as I know, most or all of the other election law blogs don’t have [...]

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Ballot Access News:
The Third Circuit could issue an opinion in Baldwin v Cortes at any time. There will be no oral argument, and the three judges will rule strictly from having read the briefs. Here is the Constitution Party’s opening brief; here is the state’s brief; here is the Constitution Party’s reply [...]

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Ballot Access News:
The December 28 issue of the Biloxi, Mississippi, Sun Herald, has this story about Brian Moore’s ongoing lawsuit to settle the exact deadline for candidates to file presidential elector paperwork to be on the ballot. The lawsuit is more than a year old, and is far from being settled. This is apparently the [...]

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Posted in Ballot Access News:
The December 25 issue of the Durango (Colorado) Herald has this story about Joelle Riddle’s lawsuit against a law that says no one may be an independent candidate if that person has been a member of a qualified party an entire year before filing. Riddle is a County Commissioner who wants [...]

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Posted in Ballot Access News:
The Working Families Party has filed its paperwork in Vermont to be a ballot-qualified minor party. There are now Working Families on the ballot in six states. The other five are Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Oregon, and South Carolina (the party in Connecticut is ballot-qualified for some offices, including all five [...]

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Posted in Ballot Access News:
On November 12, New Hampshire State Senator Theodore Gatsas resigned his seat in the New Hampshire Senate, because he had just been elected Mayor of Manchester. Shortly afterwards, the New Hampshire Executive Council said there will be a special election to fill that empty seat on February 16. It said that [...]

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Ballot Access News reports:
The December 17 issue of The Republican, the daily newspaper of Springfield, Massachusetts, has this editorial, opposing any 3-candidate debates in the upcoming special election for U.S. Senate. The independent candidate, Joseph L. Kennedy, should be excluded, the paper argues, because he is “little-known” and “no relation to the family of [...]

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