Baines v. Bellows
| Decision Date | 17 November 2021 |
| Docket Number | 1:19-cv-00509-LEW |
| Citation | 573 F.Supp.3d 365 |
| Parties | James BAINES et al., Plaintiffs, v. Shenna BELLOWS, Secretary of State for the State of Maine, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maine |
John H. Branson, Branson Law Office, P.A., Portland, ME, Oliver B. Hall, Center for Competitive Democracy, William P. Tedards, Jr., Pro Hac Vice, Law Office of William P. Tedards, Jr., Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.
Jonathan R. Bolton, Thomas A. Knowlton, Phyllis Gardiner, Office of the Attorney General, Augusta, ME, for Defendant.
ORDER ON MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
This is a case about the legal-political infrastructure that an association of like-minded citizens must navigate in Maine to qualify for ballot access as a minor political party and that party candidates must navigate to demonstrate local public support for their candidacies. At its root, the question to be answered is whether the legal edifice Maine has erected around ballot access for minor political parties is a reasonable safeguard or an impermissible rearguard depriving them of the freedom to associate for political ends and to equal protection under the law in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.
In this action, the Plaintiffs, James Baines, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Maine, Christopher Lyons, former party chair and Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate-hopeful in 20181 , Allen Esposito, party adherent, William Sampson, party adherent, Cody Blackburn, party adherent and Maine House District 125 Libertarian candidate-hopeful in 2018, Bonnie Young, party adherent and Maine House District 121 Libertarian candidate-hopeful in 2018, and the Libertarian Party of Maine, Inc.2 (the "Party"), band together to challenge the constitutionality of Maine's system of party-based election qualification and candidate nomination. On November 11, 2019, they filed their Complaint seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in two counts: the first alleging violation of their right of association under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the second alleging violation of their right to equal protection under the law under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. See Complaint (ECF No. 1).
Defendant Shenna Bellows, Secretary of State for the State of Maine (the "Secretary"), opposes Plaintiffs’ claims. However, during the travel of this case she or her deputy has advised the Maine Legislature to improve Maine's ballot access laws to avoid an unfavorable ruling. The Legislature has passed certain bills toward this end.
The matter is now before the Court on competing motions for summary judgment. See Def.’s Mot. (ECF No. 54); Pls.’ Mot. (ECF No. 55). In the main, the material facts consist of the workings of the system itself. Other material facts relate to the Libertarian Party of Maine's history of qualifying for and then failing to qualify for participation in Maine elections, as well as the experience of various candidates enrolled in the Libertarian Party of Maine or the Maine Green Independent Party. This is by no means the first litigation to challenge Maine's electoral system. To the extent that it is relevant to the background of this litigation the history of prior litigation is related herein.
The statutory scheme challenged in this action is found in Title 21-A of the Maine Revised Statutes. The litigants are concerned chiefly with Chapter 5 governing "nominations," which encompasses, among other things, both "party qualification" (subchapter 1, article 1) and party-based candidate nomination, dubbed "nomination by primary election" (subchapter 1, article 4). In addition to the party-focused provisions, Plaintiffs ask that I consider, by way of comparison, Maine law governing the nomination of unenrolled candidates, a process that proceeds "by petition" (subchapter 2).
Maine law governing the qualification of political parties for ballot access is found in Title 21-A, Chapter 5, Subchapter 1, Article 1 of the Maine statutes. See 21-A M.R.S. §§ 301 ("Qualified parties"), 302 ("Formation of new party; organization about a candidate"), 303 ("Formation of new party; organization by party enrollment"). Although these statutes speak in terms of the "formation" of a party, they do not actually prescribe rules for party formation. Rather, they establish standards by which political groups already nominally organized as parties or political associations may be deemed "qualified" under state law.3 By becoming a qualified party, a party assumes the privilege and the burden of participating in Maine's state-run primary4 elections, see id. § 301(1) ; earns an automatic ballot line for its nominees in the general election, see id. § 301(2) ; and gains the ability to enroll voters as party members in the paper-card and computerized Central Voter Registration ("CVR") system5 administered at the state level by the Division of Elections6 and at the local level by municipal clerks and registrars, see id. § 141.
The process by which a party obtains qualified status in Maine unfolds in, essentially, three stages: declaration, qualification, and preservation. The declaration stage begins when a group of ten or more unenrolled voters applies by "fil[ing] a declaration of intent with the Secretary of State" in which they designate the name of their party. Id. § 303(1). The declaration is due in December of an even-numbered year—that is, one month after a general election. Id. After receipt of a properly filed declaration of intent—and at the start of the next odd-numbered year—the Secretary will authorize voters to enroll in the new party. Id. § 303(2).
In the qualification stage, the nascent party seeks to fully qualify to participate in the next general election by provisionally enrolling at least 5,000 voters "[o]n or before January 2nd of the next even-numbered year."7 Id. § 303(2). To enroll in the party, voters may either complete and file voter registration cards directly with their local municipal registrars, see id. § 141, or complete cards and give them to the applicants to file at the local level on their behalf, see Stipulation 1 (ECF No. 72). Only with the Secretary's authorization in place will local clerks and registrars be able to record the voter's party enrollment in the CVR. At this stage, the emerging party is merely authorized to accrue enrollments en route to achieving qualified status. Thus, the enrollment of a voter in the new party is, initially, provisional only. If the party succeeds in achieving 5,000 enrollments by the deadline, then the Secretary will qualify the party to participate in the candidate nomination process of two general elections.
Having qualified to participate in the primary process, the party is not out of the woods; in the third stage, the party must preserve its status either by enrolling several thousand more voters or by nominating gubernatorial or presidential candidates who earn substantial support in subsequent general elections. The new party is given an initial grace period of 34 months—from the time of qualification until the second general election thereafter—during which it will remain qualified. Id. § 301(1)(E). After this initial grace period, the party must show at each ensuing general election either that it has 10,000 enrolled members or that its candidate for Governor or President received at least 5% of the statewide vote. L.D. 1061 (130th Legis. 2021).8 Should a party fail to clear both hurdles at any future general election, it will be disqualified. 21-A M.R.S. § 304 (citing § 301 ).
Once a party has been disqualified under § 304, the Secretary will proceed to strike its members’ party enrollments from the CVR through a "batch process" that purges the CVR electronic enrollment record for all voters enrolled in the party. The voters will still be registered to vote in their respective municipalities, but they will no longer be recorded as members of the disqualified party. The Secretary has chosen to perform the batch unenrollment based on her interpretation of 21-A M.R.S. § 306, which reads: "A voter who is enrolled in a party which failed to meet the requirements of section 302 or 303, or which is disqualified under section 304, is considered an unenrolled voter for all purposes." Id. § 306. Members of disqualified parties thus find themselves once again at square zero: if they wish to compete in future elections, they must file a declaration with the Secretary, ask all formerly enrolled members to complete new voter registration cards, and hope once more to meet the deadlines and enrollment thresholds prescribed under Maine law.
By Maine law, once the Secretary of State bestows ballot qualified status on a party and until the Secretary takes that status away, persons enrolled in the party are authorized to pursue candidacies for office as party candidates beginning no sooner than January 1 of an election year. 21-A M.R.S. § 335(6). To sustain a party-based candidacy in Maine, prospective candidates are required to secure signatures on nominating petition papers distributed by the Secretary. Id. § 334. Because of the January start date, the prospective candidates of a new minor party cannot collect signatures during their party's initial drive for voter enrollments, which by law takes place in an odd-numbered (i.e., non-election) year.
Maine also requires party candidates to draw nominating signatures exclusively from members of their own party who reside in and are registered to vote in the applicable "electoral division" for the public office the candidate is pursuing. Id. § 335(2). The candidate's "primary petition must be filed in the office of the Secretary of State before 5 p. m. on March 15th of the election year in which it is...
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