[EL] compendium of laws on faithless electors?
Richard Winger
richardwinger at yahoo.com
Wed Mar 23 06:33:41 PDT 2016
Very good question. Maybe Ballotpedia? I don't have such a compilation.
Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
From: "Goldfeder, Jerry H." <jgoldfeder at stroock.com>
To: 'Richard Winger' <richardwinger at yahoo.com>; Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>; Jon Sherman <jsherman at fairelectionsnetwork.com>
Cc: "law-election at UCI.edu" <law-election at uci.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 6:26 AM
Subject: RE: [EL] Ohio's sore loser law
Is there published a compilation of state laws relating to electors/"faithless" electors?
Jerry H. Goldfeder
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
212-806-5857
917-680-3132
jgoldfeder at stroock.com
www.stroock.com/people/jgoldfeder
Please consider the environment before printing this email
-----Original Message-----
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Winger
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2016 5:59 PM
To: Rick Hasen; Jon Sherman
Cc: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Ohio's sore loser law
Sore loser laws for president can't be enforced because the true candidates in November are presidential elector candidates, and they aren't sore losers. And the Ohio law that says independents can't have been associated with a party (which is different than a sore loser law) would be no problem because Trump or whoever could just choose presidential elector candidates who were true independents.
The state court said Ohio's presidential primary doesn't really elect delegates because after the primary is over, the delegates still aren't elected, just the apportionment of how many delegates each presidential candidate deserves. That objection can't be made to November elections for presidential elector candidates. They really are elected in November.
Another reason the Ohio sore loser and indp disaffiliation laws can't be enforced for president is that they add to the constitutional qualifications for federal office. I know Storer v Brown rejected that theory in 1974, but that was before 1995, when the US Supreme Cort said for the first time states can't add to the qualifications. Back in 1974 that wasn't settled. Furthermore since the 1995 US Term Limits decision, the 9th, 10th, 5th, and 2nd circuits have ruled that candidates for congress can't be kept off the ballot because they aren't registered voters or because they don't live in the state. Residency is only as of election day, not before.
A third reason sore loser and prior disaffiliation laws can't realistically work for president is that the excluded candidate, say Donald Trump, is always free to put Donald Trump, Jr on the ballot as an independent. Then Jr & Sr Trump and their electors could tell the public that if those electors are elected, they would really vote for Trump Sr. Those electors might be subject to a fine, but the state can't tell them whom to vote for in December in the electoral college.
North Carolina and Montana laws say an elector who violates his or pledge is deemed to have resigned, and will be replaced by the remaining electors. But if the entire slate votes different than what they had pledged, there is no one to replace them. Anyway Ohio has no such law.
Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 3/14/16, Jon Sherman <jsherman at fairelectionsnetwork.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [EL] Ohio's sore loser law
To: "Rick Hasen" <rhasen at law.uci.edu>
Cc: "law-election at UCI.edu" <law-election at uci.edu>
Date: Monday, March 14, 2016, 10:15 AM
Without commenting on
the 17 year-old voter primary voter case, I did think I should note that Ohio's current sore loser statute clearly includes presidential primary candidates. I'm not sure when it was amended but I don't think there's any question that it would keep Donald Trump off the ballot as an independent candidate. See Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3513.04: No person who seeks party nomination for an office or position at a primary election by declaration of candidacy or by declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate and no person who is a first choice for president of candidates seeking election as delegates and alternates to the national conventions of the different major political parties who are chosen by direct vote of the electors as provided in this chapter shall be permitted to become a candidate by nominating petition, including a nominating petition filed undersection 3517.012 of the Revised Code, by declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate, or by filling a vacancy under section 3513.31 of the Revised Code at the following general election for any office other than the office of member of the state board of education, office of member of a city, local, or exempted village board of education, office of member of a governing board of an educational service center, or office of township trustee.
I take it the statute used to only reference a "declaration of candidacy" (prompting Richard's argument) but the statute appears to have been changed. On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at
12:06 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>
wrote:
“Sanders
lawsuit: Ohio official
changed law to block 17-year-olds from voting”
Posted
on March
9,
2016 7:35 am by Rick
Hasen
CNN:
Bernie
Sanders’ campaign on Tuesday sued Ohio Secretary of State
Jon Husted, accusing the Republican of quietly changing a
law in an effort to block 17-year-olds from voting in the
state’s presidential primary next week.
Husted,
however, insisted that there had been no change in the law.
You
can read the complaint here.
Richard
Winger:
The
Secretary of State believes that the law does not apply to
presidential primaries, because presidential primaries are
really elections for Delegate to national conventions.
However, the Secretary’s stance on this contradicts what he
has told the press about whether the Ohio sore loser law and
the Ohio law on affiliation of independent candidates apply
to presidential primaries.
Posted
in campaigns, voting
--
Jon ShermanCounsel
Fair Elections Legal
Network*
1825 K Street NW, Suite 450Washington, D.C. 20006
Phone: (202) 248-5346jsherman at fairelectionsnetwork.com
www.fairelectionsnetwork.com
*The contents of this email should not be construed as legal advice.
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