From Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:
Pennsylvania state government attorneys did not appeal any of the three points won on March 2, 2015, by the Libertarian and Green Parties in Green Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele. The government deadline to appeal was June 11, but no government appeal was lodged.
The three points that had been won on March 2, 2015, were: (1) the ban on out-of-state circulators is unconstitutional; (2) the requirement that each petition sheet be notarized is unconstitutional; (3) the ban on a voter signing the petitions of different petitioning parties, even if they are running for the same office, is unconstitutional.
The two parties are appealing the points they lost: (1) whether voters from different counties can sign the same petition sheet; (2) whether persons who are not registered to vote but who are eligible to register to vote can sign petitions.
It would be the attorney’s fault if they were the one who failed to file in time to be able to get the money spent to defend the challenge back.
Regardless of who was at fault, Libertarians could have put that $100,000 (or whatever the exact figure is) to good use.
That is unfortunate, but hardly the lawyer’s fault.
“Mark Axinn
June 14, 2015 at 2:54 pm
>Attorney Paul Rossi did an incredible job!
Absolutely!!!”
There was one big area where he, and/or somebody else, screwed up in the 2012 challenge to the Libertarian Party’s petition. That is that after the challenge was over (the Libertarian Party just barely survived the challenge), there was a time period where the Libertarian Party could sue the Republicans who had issued the challenge to recoup all of the money that the Libertarian Party spent on the challenge. The law suit to recoup the money spent on the challenge was not filed in time, so the party forfeited its chance to be reimbursed for the money it spent on the challenge. I don’t know what the exact figure was, but it could have easily been $100,000.
>Attorney Paul Rossi did an incredible job!
Absolutely!!!
Andy–
In New York, the petitions of cross-county candidates for lower offices get filed in State BOE, so they can include statewide candidates too.
That’s why Glogowski’s 2500 sigs and Bowman’s 4500 were so important in 2014: even if they got knocked off the ballot, every sig they got also counted for McDermott/Edes (Gov./Lt. Gov.).
On the other hand, NYS Election Law says if the local candidate’s district is wholly within one county or NYC, then the petition is filed with the local county BOE and his/her sigs don’t count statewide.
Another stupid anomaly in NY Election Law.
“Chuck Moulton
June 13, 2015 at 3:03 pm
Attorney Paul Rossi did an incredible job!
Personally I don’t think the county issue is important or should go to us.”
I would say that the county issue is important, and it would make ballot access easier if it were eliminated. There are some states where the petition just says that it is to place the Libertarian Party on the ballot, and the signatures do not have to be separated by county, and once the party achieves ballot access, the party can nominate candidates via convention (Arkansas is like this for minor party ballot access petitions, but it was not like this prior to 2007). Having to separate counties makes the validity more difficult (because sometimes people sign the wrong county page), and it also slows the petition circulators down because they have to flip through pages to find the right county page for whoever is signing. Another factor with having to separate counties is that it means that the campaign has to spend more money than necessary photo copying petition sheets.
Petitions for minor parties in New York have to have the names of candidates on them, but they do not require separation by county. I’m pretty sure that like Pennsylvania minor party petitions, the petitions in New York have the names of the state wide candidates at the top of the page, but then in lower spaces on the same page one can fill in names for candidates for US House, State Senate, and State Assembly/House, and that for the signatures to count for the district office candidates, the signatures must come out of the districts where they are running, but unlike Pennsylvania, the petition pages do not have to be separated by county.
If the county separation can be eliminated in Pennsylvania, that would be a good thing.
Great news!
Attorney Paul Rossi did an incredible job!
Personally I don’t think the county issue is important or should go to us. The qualified elector vs. registered voter issue is very important though and common sense.