Joe Spaulding, lead field strategist for the Voters Not Politicians Michigan independent redistricting campaign that got 440,000 signatures in 4 months without paying any signature gatherers, reveals some follicular (and data-supported) tactics for fighting diminishing returns out in canvass-land. Thread. … Continue reading
Category Archives: petition signature gathering
The plot thicks. Maybe. Earlier this week, I’d mentioned a movement to amend state constitutions to prohibit voting by noncitizens in state elections, even though every state currently prohibits voting by noncitizens in state elections. Now a report featuring speculation … Continue reading
When partisan officials control the process for certifying summaries and titles for initiatives and referenda heading onto the ballot, there will be controversy along the way. This story is about alleged foot-dragging on beginning the petitioning process to validate a … Continue reading
From the conclusion of the district court order in the case challenging the Green Party’s candidate petition: 1. Certain signatures on the Petition are declared invalid …. Removal of these signatures results in the Petition not qualifying in the 34 House … Continue reading
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that armed private investigators visited a signatory to and circulator of third-party candidate petitions, trying to get them to sign affidavits that the signatures were fraudulent (h/t BAN). … Continue reading
The vote on this point in Chula Vista Citizens for Jobs v. Norris was 2-1. I expect this issue will go en banc and perhaps to the Supreme Court—with a decent chance of reversal. … Continue reading
Time is short, so I’m guessing this means no appeal, but who knows? See my earlier coverage on the potential for a successful appeal. … Continue reading
Recall Elections Blog: “Big news out of New Jersey that should have an impact beyond recalls….” Similar issue to the Conyers decision today. … Continue reading
Detroit News reports. But we are awaiting a ruling today from a U.S. District court in the federal lawsuit. … Continue reading
Jeff Jacoby column on ballot access and Rep. Conyers. … Continue reading
Important look at the legal issues from the Detroit News. On the relevance of the Nader case, Michigan is apparently taking the position that it is unconstitutional to limit petition signature gatherers to residents in presidential elections but not in … Continue reading
NYT”s “Taking Note” on Rep. Conyers. … Continue reading
Yeah, there was little doubt this was coming. [UPDATE: The story now clarifies that Conyers joined an existing suit and did not file a separate suit.] … Continue reading
The Detroit Free Press reports. Let’s see what happens after the lawsuit. … Continue reading
BAN reports. … Continue reading
News. … Continue reading
Ballot Access News: Michigan election officials are likely to keep Congressman John Conyers off the August 5 primary ballot, unless he files and wins a lawsuit. See this story, which explains that Michigan law requires circulators for primary candidates to … Continue reading
Aaron Blake: Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who stands to become the longest-serving member of Congress if he wins reelection this year, might not even qualify for the ballot. According to a new report in The Detroit News, two more people … Continue reading
Read Empower Our Neighborhoods v. Kimberly Guadagno. … Continue reading
Ballot Access News reports. … Continue reading
The Sacramento Bee reports. … Continue reading
Sacramento News and Review: Earlier this month, City Attorney James Sanchez sent a confidential memo to select staff. The city won’t release it, but multiple sources told SN&R that its contents explored ways to successfully quash the arena ballot initiative, … Continue reading
SacBee: “The campaign to force a public vote on Sacramento’s downtown arena plan was dealt a considerable blow Friday, when the city’s top elections official rejected the measure for “major” legal flaws and ruled it should not appear on the … Continue reading
NYT. … Continue reading
Josh Blackman blogs. … Continue reading
WaPo: “California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has vetoed a measure that would have severely limited the ability of wealthy activists and corporations to use paid signature gatherers to get initiatives on the ballot.” Here is Brown’s veto statement. I viewed … Continue reading
Press release: “The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law today moved in federal court to immediately enjoin the state from enforcing Senate Bill 47′s new limits on Ohioans’ initiative and referendum rights. The legislation, which became effective in June, restricts Ohioans … Continue reading
See this Memorandum of Law from the San Diego City Attorney’s office. … Continue reading
Newday [corrected] oped. … Continue reading
Watch. … Continue reading
Love this image of democracy in action: Due to the high pay, I felt obligated to get at many signatures as I could. The West Village has many aging Jewish women and gay couples. These are my people. I realized … Continue reading
BuzzFeed reports. … Continue reading
NYT: Every mayoral candidate needs 3,750 voter signatures to appear on the primary ballot in Sptember. With about 3 million registered Democrats in the city, Democratic canvassers can stand on a street corner and let the deluge pour forth. It … Continue reading
TPM reports. … Continue reading
South Bend Tribune: “The former chairman of the St. Joseph County Democratic Party will serve one year in prison for his role in a scheme to forge signatures onto petitions that qualified Democratic candidates for the state’s 2008 primary election.” … Continue reading
Ballot Access News: On May 29, the 4th circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court that residency requirements for circulators are unconstitutional. The lawsuit concerned out-of-state circulators. The case is Libertarian Party of Virginia v Judd, 12-1996. Here is a … Continue reading
Ballot Access News reports. … Continue reading
See here. … Continue reading
More newsfrom Montana: ‘A Billings minister has prevailed in his federal suit against state and Yellowstone County officials who he alleged violated his free speech rights when he was arrested while collecting anti-abortion petition signatures at MetraPark.” … Continue reading
Governing: “Nearly 25,000 signatures submitted to place two initiatives on North Dakota’s November ballot were fraudulent, according to a state investigation, raising questions about the widespread practice of contracting out signature-gathering for ballot petitions.” … Continue reading
The Detroit Free Press reports. … Continue reading
AP reports. BAN links to the opinion. I also thought this footnote addressing the state’s allegation that non-residents were more likely to commit election fraud has broader significance: … Continue reading
Michigan State Supreme Court wants to delve into the meaning of “point” and “typeface” in deciding whether to kick referendum off ballot for using slightly smaller typeface in heading than prescribed 14 point type. Looks like a good case to … Continue reading
This item appears at the Recall Elections Blog. … Continue reading
WaPo: “The Michigan attorney general’s office is preparing to look into potential election fraud within Michigan Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter’s campaign after large numbers of the signatures turned in by the campaign were ruled invalid….At the root of that failure … Continue reading
Roll Call: “Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) is at risk of losing his place on the Aug. 7 primary ballot due to problems with his petition signatures, wreaking havoc on the GOP’s once secure hold on his seat.” … Continue reading
News from Indiana: “Former St. Joseph County Democratic Party Chairman Butch Morgan and three others have been indicted on counts of fraud, forgery, and official misconduct. The charges come after an investigation into the submission of petitions that allegedly contained … Continue reading
Janine A. Parry, Daniel A. Smith and Shayne Henry have written this article for Political Behavior. Here is the abstract: Generally speaking, campaign-related contact motivates voters. One form of such contact not much explored in the voter mobilization literature is … Continue reading
Apparently exactly the opposite. … Continue reading
Adam Bonin: “With all due respect, I’m not quite sure that Monday’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision regarding out-of-district circulators means quite what commentators seem to think it does. In short, while the decision clearly eliminates that requirement as to independent … Continue reading