February 14th, 2008
The Pennsylvania Constitution Party earlier decided to bring a new federal lawsuit against certain Pennsylvania election laws. Since then, the Pennsylvania Green Party and the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party have decided to join the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is likely to challenge four Pennsylvania laws or practices: (1) Pennsylvania’s unique system of forcing candidates whose petitions are successfully challenged, to pay for the costs of determining that the petition was insufficient; (2) the practice of many Pennsylvania counties of failing to count any write-in votes, even though under state law all write-ins are valid; (3) Pennsylvania’s failure to tally registrations for parties that are not qualified parties but which do place nominees on the November ballot; (4) the wording on the petition that says the signers are “nominating” the listed candidates.
The basis for point (1) is that the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that states cannot force voters, parties, and candidates to pay for the costs of administering elections. The basis for point (3) is a string of favorable precedents on the same issue from courts in Colorado, Oklahoma, New Jersey, New York and Iowa. The basis for point (4) is a string of favorable precedents from federal courts in Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia, striking down restrictive wording on petitions for minor parties or their candidates
www.ballot-access.org
No comments:
Post a Comment