How far are we from “a Soviet-style system where the competition is pruned such that the election merely ratifies the controlling party’s choice,” CCD director Theresa Amato asks in an op-ed for CNN. Ballot access restrictions preventing Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum from appearing on Virginia’s Republican primary election ballot are just the latest evidence of an “archaic electoral process that artificially restricts our ballot choices,” Amato writes.#oped

Philadelphia Weekly has this investigative piece on Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional practice of requiring candidates to pay litigation costs following challenges to their nomination petitions. The piece quotes an open letter consumer advocate and former independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader wrote to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille, which states, “The Jim Crow era ended in large part because the United States Supreme Court struck down such financial burdens in a

Washington Post runs Oliver Hall’s letter to the editor in response to Attorney General Eric Holder’s call for political parties not “to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success,” and to focus instead on winning elections “by appealing to more voters.”#lettertotheeditor

CCD director Theresa Amato writes in the Washington Post that Rep. Michele Bachman’s performance in the first Republican debate of the 2012 primary season “offers tangible evidence of the importance of an open debate that lets voters hear from a wide field of candidates with a genuine variety of viewpoints, without self-appointed gatekeepers—be they media hosts or the Commission on Presidential Debates—who artificially narrow debate participation.” Read the story here.

On May 11, CCD legal counsel Oliver Hall will argue before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Libertarian Party of North Dakota, in the Libertarians’ case challenging the North Dakota law that prevents the winners of the Libertarian Party primary from appearing on the ballot unless they receive a minimum number of votes equal, in some cases, to as much as 15 percent of the entire vote cast.#libertarians #NorthDakota

CCD, the Coalition for Free and Open Elections, and Free & Equal file amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court, in support of the petition for certiorari filed by Faye Coffield, an independent candidate for U.S. House who was denied access to Georgia’s 2008 general election ballot. No minor party or independent candidate for U.S. House has successfully petitioned to access Georgia’s ballot since the state increased its requirements in 1964 – a period of 46 years. The case is Coffield v. K

Philadelphia Inquirer publishes CCD legal counsel Oliver Hall’s column demonstrating that voter choice was suppressed in Pennsylvania’s November 2, 2010 general election, as a result of the state’s unique practice of imposing unconstitutional costs and attorneys’ fees upon candidates who defend nomination petitions that they are required by law to submit. See our Media page for the article.#Pennsylvania #op-ed

CCD files lawsuit in federal district court for North Dakota to challenge the constitutionality of a state law that bars winners of the North Dakota Libertarian Party’s primary election from appearing on the general election ballot, because they did not receive a specified minimum number of votes. The plaintiffs are the North Dakota Libertarian Party and three of its candidates for state legislature – Richard Ames, Thommy Passa and Anthony Stewart – each of whom was denied placement on North Dak

The Kansas City Star publishes CCD Director Theresa Amato’s op-ed calling for a revamped Federal Election Commission to solve the agency’s “partisan paralysis.” The solution? Transform the FEC from a “bi-partisan” to a “non-partisan” agency by appointing independents and minor party members – not just Republicans and Democrats – to serve as Commissioners.#op-ed #FEC