Voting Methods and Election Integrity Symposium

The Voting Methods & Election Integrity Symposium will take place at Infinity Park Cherry Creek Room in Glendale, CO on Saturday, November 15th from 9AM-4PM.  The event is hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation and co-sponsored by organizations such as Fair Elections for Colorado, FairVote, and Ballot Access News.

In order to find meaningful reforms to voting and electoral systems, the symposium will explore voting methods such as approval voting, instant runoff, proportional representation, and more, as well as issues of election integrity, such as closed-source electronic voting machines, the Electoral College, gerrymandering, Top Two primary systems, and more.  Many Americans are discouraged from voting for their candidate of choice for many reasons, one of which is the current system of single-winner plurality voting, as well as concerns over the integrity of the elections themselves.  The goal is to directly challenge the electoral status-quo by empowering voters and candidates alike.

Many amazing panelists are lining up to help propose solutions for our voting and elections systems, including FairVote’s Rob Richie (via Skype), Aaron Hamlin of the Center for Election Science, Bill Redpath of the Libertarian Party, and Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News and advisory board member of Free and Equal.

The event will be live-streamed on the Free and Equal Network.

The details are as follows:

Who: Rob Richie (FairVote, via Skype), Richard Winger (Ballot Access News, Free and Equal), Bill Redpath (Libertarian Party), Aaron Hamlin (Center for Election Science).

What: Voting Methods & Election Integrity Symposium

Where: Infinity Park Events Center (Cherry Creek Room), 4400 E Kentucky Ave, Glendale, CO

When: November 15th – Voting Methods Panel from 9-12PM, Lunch 12-1PM, Election Integrity Panel from 1-4PM.

Why: To share experienced knowledge of voting methods and foster a progressive approach to voting and electoral systems.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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The cost of being an activist can be very high

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you will have noticed that many of the subjects began with my reading The Ballot Access News.

When the editor of Ballot Access News, Richard Winger, and five other activists, Steve Chessin, Jeff Mackler, Rodney Martin, Mona Field and Jennifer Wozniak, sued California's Top-Two Open Primaries, known as Prop. 14, they lost their challenge in court, with judges finding that the top-two primary law was valid and constitutional. But unfortunately for these citizen-challengers, that's not the end of the story.

The citizens sued the state, but the wealthy backers of the top-two primary system intervened in the case. Once the ruling went against the plaintiffs, the top-two backers sought to get the citizens to pay their attorneys' fees, and this week a San Francisco judge agreed, ordering the six citizens to pay $243,279.50.

The judge's order, which is likely to be appealed, says that the backers of the initiative are owed the fees because the plaintiffs lost and because they didn't achieve anything in the public interest.

Use these links to read articles about the decision:

The-Cost-of-Taking-on-California-Reformers

Loser Pays









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Legal Suicide of a Ballot Qualified Political Party

Thanks to Ballot Access News for the post.

Reportedly, national leaders of Americans Elect are planning to ask state officials to de-certify the party, in all the states in which the party is now ballot-qualified. However, there is no legal precedent that gives state or national party leaders the legal ability to take that step.

States in which Americans Elect is currently ballot-qualified are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

So now we will have to check who tries to locally take over their ballot position.

Use the above link to read an article by Jacqueline Salit, the President of IndependentVoting.org, the author of Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America, to be published by Palgrave/Macmillan in August.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NYS to Reform Vote Counting Issue

Thanks to Ballot Access News and Nancy Hanks for this post.

Will watching the streaming of a New York State Board of Elections meeting I realized there was a problem with how the board was going to program their new optical scanning machines when counting votes. I made my Executive Committee members' of the New York City Independence Party Organizations aware of the problem. Some of the other minor parties started a court case and allowed the Independence Party to be part of the case.

On September 8, the New York State Board of Elections settled the lawsuit that had been brought by the Conservative Party, the Working Families Party, and the Taxpayers Party, on the subject of how to count votes when a voter erroneously casts two votes (one vote under each party label) for a single candidate. The parties had sued the Board last year, because the state was automatically giving that vote only to the party closer to the top of the ballot in upstate and on the left in New York City, due to ballot formats. In New York, the parties are listed on the ballot in order of how many votes they received for Governor, so the Democratic and Republican Parties are always closer to the top or the left of the ballot than all other parties. Therefore, the Democratic Party, or the Republican Party, would get the vote, and the minor party would not.

In May 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff had refused the Board’s request to dismiss this case. That was a signal that the judge felt the case had significant merit, although he hadn’t yet made a final ruling. So, the state decided to stop defending the old policy, and agreed to a fairer system.

The Board of Elections will cause the optical scan voting machines to alert voters when they have double-voted. The machine will display a message that says, “You filled in more than one oval for a candidate in at least one contest. While your candidate preference is clear, it is not clear which party you prefer.” The machine will then show which office is affected, and ask the voter to vote again. The message will also tell the voter that if the voter doesn’t re-do the ballot, the vote will be counted for the party listed first. The voter then will have the choice to accept the vote or get a new ballot. Also, the polling places will have signs near each voting booth that say in big print, “DO NOT VOTE MORE THAN ONCE FOR THE SAME CANDIDATE.”.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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SC Republican Primary Stays Open

Thanks to Ballot Access News and Harry Kresky for this post.

Maybe my phone bank work made a difference.

On March 30, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs turned aside the Republican Party lawsuit against South Carolina’s open primary as applied to the Republican Party. Similar to another 4th circuit ruling earlier in a Virginia case that if a party choices to nominate by primary, it must follow the state election law on who can participate, which in these cases, includes independents. Like Virginia, South Carolina lets all parties decide whether to nominate by primary or convention.

The Republican Party had also argued that it isn’t truly free to choose to nominate by primary, because another state law says the party can’t nominate by convention unless 3/4ths of the delegates agree. However, the judge upheld the 3/4ths law as well. The name of the case is The Greenville County Republican Party v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-1407.

Use the above link to read the 25 page decision.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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The Open Primary Fight

In 2011 the Open Primary fight is expanding. The phrase "Open Primary" includes: Non-Partisan Municipal Elections, state Open Primaries or Top Two, and the fight to keep open primaries from the parties' effort to close them.

All over this country these fights are growing and the people on either side of these issues are getting more media time. If you have been reading my blog you know I am a strong advocate for the opening or keeping open the ability for all registered voters to take part in our electoral process and the ability for anyone who wants to run having the ability to get on the ballot.

On Ballot Access News this issue had one of the largest number of comments.

On The Hankster Harry Kresky, Counsel to IndependentVoting.org, wrote this response to Ballot Access News.

On February 12, 2011, IndependentVoting.org is sponsoring a FREE National Conference of Independents in New York City to discuss Can Independents Reform America? and there will be sessions about the Open Primary issue. Please attend so I can meet and discuss these issues with you.

One issue that is starting to get traction is how to pay for closed primaries. If a party wants to have a closed primary should the state pay for it with tax dollars from all residents? If this were to happen, how would you construct the law change?
My answer to this is Open Primary/Top Two and remove the problem.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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How to Lose Ballot Status in 2010

Thanks to Ballot Access News for this post.

This year, for some unknown reason, major and minor parties will lose their ballot status.

In North Dakota, a party remains ballot-qualified if it polls 5% for Secretary of State. The Libertarian Party, the only ballot-qualified party other than the two major parties, is running for three statewide offices, but not Secretary of State. The party had chosen a candidate for Secretary of State but he failed to file for the party’s primary, even though he needed no petition and no filing fee.

In South Dakota, a party remains ballot-qualified if it polls 2.5% for Governor. The Constitution Party, the only ballot-qualified party other than the two major parties, has a nominee for Secretary of State, but not Governor.

In Wisconsin, a party remains ballot-qualified if it polls 1% for any statewide office. No candidate gathered the needed 2,000 signatures to appear on the Green Party’s primary ballot for any statewide office.

In Montana, a party remains ballot-qualified if it polls 5% of the winning candidate’s vote for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. The Constitution Party did not poll enough votes to meet this test in 2008, and in 2010, its “second chance” election, it is not running for either of the statewide offices, so it will go off the ballot.

In Massachusetts, a party remains ballot-qualified if it polls 3% for any statewide race. The Libertarian Party is the only ballot-qualified party other than the two major parties. No candidate qualified to appear on the Libertarian Party primary ballot, because primary petitions are so difficult. They require 10,000 signatures for some statewide offices and 5,000 signatures for other, less important, statewide offices. Only registered members of that party, and registered independents, may sign.

Fox News Poll released several days ago for the Colorado gubernatorial election shows these results: Hickenlooper, Democrat, 44%; Tancredo, Constitution, 34%; Maes, Republican, 15%; others and undecided 7%. The share of the vote for the Republican nominee, Dan Maes, has been dropping with each new poll. If he polls less than 10%, the Republican Party will no longer be a qualified major party and will no longer have a random chance of obtaining the top line on the ballot.

As soon as the November 2, 2010 election has been held, the Democratic and Republican Party of Washington state will no longer be ballot-qualified. This is because the law defines a ballot-qualified party as one that polled 5% of the vote for any statewide race at the last election, for any of its nominees. But under the state’s non-partisan top-two system, which went into effect in 2008, parties won’t have nominees, except for President. It is very likely that the 2011 session of the legislature will change the definition of “party”. During 2009 and 2010, the Secretary of State tried to persuade the legislature to amend the definition of qualified party to a group that had polled at least 1% for President at the last presidential election. That bill, SB 5681, did not pass.

With the growth of independent voters, our concept of Major and Minor parties will have to change.

NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Minor Party and Independent Candidates Are Involved in Constitutional Election Law Cases in At Least 21 States

Minor party and independent candidates are in at least 26 courts, in cases that challenge the constitutionality of various state election laws. A few new cases will probably be filed in December.

Use the above link to view the cases on the Ballot Access News' website.

Michael H. Drucker
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Status of Ballot Access Lawsuits

Here is a list of all known pending lawsuits from Ballot Access News in which a minor party or independent candidate is challenging the constitutionality of a state’s ballot access laws.

Use the above link to view the list.

Michael H. Drucker
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