Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal judge said he'll probably rule within a month on whether the state's laws that specify how new political parties get on the statewide ballot are unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge William Smith spent three hours listening to testimony and arguments about the law that requires a new party to collect valid voter signatures in a number equal to 5 percent of the turnout in the previous statewide election. The law also says those signature can only be collected in the year of the election the party wants to run in.

The Moderate Party of Rhode Island, its founder, Kenneth Block, and the Rhode Island Chapter of the American civil Liberties Union, represented by lawyer Mark W. Freel, argued that those limits are so onerous as to infringe on the party's constitutional rights.

By forcing the Moderate Party to wait until 2010 to collect its signatures -- about 23,500 will be needed -- and the state conceivably waiting until August to review and validate them, the party is effectively shut out of candidate recruit and fundraising for almost the whole 2010 election, Freel said.

But Asst. Atty. Gen Thomas A. Palombo said the standards were needed to prevent frivolous parties from getting on the ballot and confusing voters. He said the petition method was needed so that the Moderate Party can demonstrate it was a large or serious enough to justify being on the ballot.

"Is this just a few people sitting around a coffee table in Barrington," Palombo said.

Read an earlier story on the Moderate Party's fight for ballot access.

Extra: Read the complaint in .pdf format.
Extra: Read the plaintiff's pretrial memorandum in .pdf format.

Extra: Read the defendant's pretrial memorandum in .pdf format.

(An earlier version of this item, which previewed the hearing, was posted at 8:43a.m.)

 Tags  Moderate Party of Rhode Island politics

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