[EL] US Dist Court strikes down limited voting in Indiana

Fri Oct 10 12:26:12 PDT 2014

As Richard Winger points out, the judge erred if indeed suggesting this
arrangement is unique. Limited nomination  is required for all Connecticut
at-large municipal elections (up to two-thirds the number  of nominations
as seats), and is used for council election in cities like Hartford and
Waterbury. It is  required  for Pennsylvania county commission elections,
with parties limited to two in three-seat elections, and is done also in
Philadelphia's at-large seats. Congress set it up for the District of
Columbia for  its staggered four at-large seats, and a federal judge
several years ago rejected a challenge to the system.

What a winner-take-all, at-large system with unlimited nomination can
result in is complete one-party domination of such down-ballot elections --
that is, it's pretty easy  for voters to just vote a straight ticket, and
for one party's candidates to win all the seats. The primary election of
course remains  determinative, but now only one party's voters would have
the power to contribute to representation.

Of course in our winner-take-all system, the primary is usually the
dominant factor for representation in the great majority of contests. For
the ACLU of Indiana and Common Cause to zero in on a system that results in
more balanced representation is to me a questionable use of resources,
although I'll be interested in hearing what might have motivated the
challenge.

As Richard points out, another approach would have been to encourage more
independents and third parties to run, as that  indeed is the norm in DC
and sometimes happens in limited voting/nomination  places like Hartford.

Rob Richie

Most of these places also limit the number of votes to the number of
nominations, although DC doesn't do this. Sounds like Indianapolis doesn't
do so either.

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On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Richard Winger <richardwinger at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> But the problem is Indiana's terrible ballot access laws, not the limited
> voting itself.
>
> Indiana is one of only 4 states in which Ralph Nader never got on the
> ballot.  It is one of only 2 states in which no statewide independent or
> minor party petition has succeeded since 2000.  In most jurisdictions with
> limited voting, there are many independent candidates and minor party
> candidates.  Limited voting has enabled the Working Families Party to elect
> its own members to several Connecticut partisan local bodies, and to make
> it possible for either Republicans or independents to be on the
> Philadelphia and Washington DC city councils.  As even the opinion says,
> there was one Libertarian on in Indianapolis in 2002 for judge.
>
> Richard Winger
> 415-922-9779
> PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
>
>   ------------------------------
>  *From:* William Groth <wgroth at fdgtlaborlaw.com>
> *To:* 'Richard Winger' <richardwinger at yahoo.com>; 'Richard L Engstrom' <
> rengstro at uno.edu>; law-election at uci.edu
> *Sent:* Friday, October 10, 2014 11:58 AM
>
> *Subject:* RE: [EL] US Dist Court strikes down limited voting in Indiana
>
> The voting in judicial elections in Marion County is indeed “limited,” so
> limited in fact that there are 16 candidates nominated (8 by each political
> party) to fill 16 vacancies, a limitation so unreasonable that it convinced
> the federal judge these strictures violated the voters’ right to cast a
> meaningful ballot. I don’t think this comports with anyone’s view of how
> “limited voting” is supposed to work.
>
> William R. Groth
> Fillenwarth Dennerline Groth & Towe, LLP
> 429 E. Vermont Street, Ste. 200
> Indianapolis, IN 46202
> Telephone: (317) 353-9363
> Fax: (317) 351-7232
> E-mail:  wgroth at fdgtlaborlaw.com
>
>
>
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] *On Behalf Of *Richard
> Winger
> *Sent:* Friday, October 10, 2014 2:29 PM
> *To:* Richard L Engstrom; law-election at uci.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] US Dist Court strikes down limited voting in Indiana
>
> To me the two terms mean the same thing, but now that you mention it, I
> guess this is two different ideas, and I'm not sure what the standard
> definition covers.
>
> Richard Winger
> 415-922-9779
> PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Richard L Engstrom <rengstro at uno.edu>
> *To:* Richard Winger <richardwinger at yahoo.com>; "law-election at uci.edu" <
> law-election at uci.edu>
> *Sent:* Friday, October 10, 2014 10:57 AM
> *Subject:* RE: [EL] US Dist Court strikes down limited voting in Indiana
>
> Richard,  Does this a system include limited voting, or just limited
> nominations?
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Richard
> Winger [richardwinger at yahoo.com]
> *Sent:* Friday, October 10, 2014 12:18 PM
> *To:* law-election at uci.edu
> *Subject:* [EL] US Dist Court strikes down limited voting in Indiana
>
> http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/
>
>
>
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
>
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
>
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
>
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
>
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
>
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
> *Ballot Access News - U.S. District Court Strikes Down In...*
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
> On October 9, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young, a Clinton
> appointee, issued an opinion in Common Cause Indiana v Indiana Secretary of
> State, sou. ...
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
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> Richard Winger
> 415-922-9779
> PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
>
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/10/u-s-district-court-strikes-down-indianas-limited-voting-method-for-electing-judges-in-indianapolis/>
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