Potential Lawsuit over Primary Date Change in Alabama!

[RCR]

Alabama
On.June 1, HB 425 became law. It
moves the petition deadline for
newly qualifying parties, and nonpresidential
independent candidates,
from June to the second Tuesday in
March, in presidential election years!
The purpose of the bill was not to
move the deadline; the purpose of
the bill was to move the primary (for
all office) in presidential years from
June to March. The bill eliminated
the February presidential primary.
But because the petition deadline is
tied to the date of the primary, by
moving the primary three months
earlier, the legislature caused the
petition deadline to become three
months earlier. .It is not known if
the legislature noticed the effect on
minor party and independent candidate
petition deadlines.
In Alabama, as in most states,
newly-qualifying parties nominate by
convention, not by primary, Alabama
has a "sore loser" law preventing
anyone who ran in the primary
from becoming an independent candidate
(for office other than President).
Therefore, there is no state
interest in a petition deadline as
early as March.
In 1990, a U.S. District Court ruled
that the old petition deadline, 60
days before the primary, was unconstitutional.
In 1991, the 11thcircuit unanimously
affirmed that decision, New Alliance
Party of Alabama v Hand, 933 F.2d
1568. Thus, that decision struck
down an April petition deadline. At
the time, the number of signatures
was 1% of the last gubernatorial
vote, and there had been many minor
party and independent candidates on
the ballot during the preceding ten
years. The court opinion noted that
the April deadline has not blocked
all minor party and independent
candidates from the ballot, but still
strock it down because it couldn't
see any good reason for the deadline
to be as early as April.
It is very likely that a new lawsuit
will be filed against the March petition
deadline, perhaps by the Constitution,
Green and Libertarian Parties.
That case will be stronger than
the 1990 case, because in the last
eight years, there have been no minor
party or independent candidates
on the statewide ballot (except that
independent presidential candidates
have qualified, because they only
need 5,000 signatures and that petition
is not due until early September).
In 2010, Alabama was one of
only five states with no minor party
or independent candidates on the
ballot for statewide office.
Another reason the new lawsuit will
be stronger than the 2012 lawsuit is
that the 2012 lawsuit involves presidential
elections. Precedents against
early petition deadlines involving
presidential elections are even
stronger than precedents involving
elections for other office, especially
in the 11th Circuit.
And, of course, a third reason the
new lawsuit will be stronger than the
1990 case is that the new deadline,
in March, is earlier than the April
deadline that had been struck down.

[NewFederalist]

I would guess COFOE would help with a lawsuit. The CP is a member (as is the LP and the Greens among others) so I would hope they are already working on it. Good luck!

[RCR]

Got this today from Richard Winger at Ballot Access News.
Hi, thanks for your e-mail, which I just now read. I decided to forward you the e-mail from the Alabama attorney, Arlene Richardson, so you can see that what she needs now from the Constitution Party is a plaintiff-candidate or two. The plaintiff-candidate doesn't actually need to do anything, just to say that he or she wants to run as a Constitution Party candidate in 2012 for some office. I know there isn't much to run for in Alabama in 2012 except US House. There is no US Senate race and no legislative seats up. There is one partisan statewide race, President of the Public Service Commission, that is up in every presidential year. Also there are seats on the Alabama Supreme Court but I am guessing only an attorney can run for that.

There is a well-funded new political party called Americans Elect which is almost certainly going to circulate the party petition in Alabama this year. I learned today that Americans Elect contacted the Alabama Secretary of State's office a week ago to learn about the party petition. They are funded by multi-millionaires. They have just submitted 1,600,000 signatures to qualify as a party in California, which probably cost them $3,000,000. Reportedly they have received $20 million from various rich people. It would be much better if we could get the Alabama lawsuit well underway before they qualify as a party in Alabama. Right now we can truthfully say that no one has qualified for the statewide process (either independent non-presidential or third party) since the Libertarians did it in 2000 in Alabama. So speed is very important. Thank you for what you are doing.

If no one else steps forward I personally have agreed to become a plaintiff.
I will keep you guys posted.
Richard Rutledge.