[Lnc-business] Advisement of proposed lawsuit - Maine

[Marc Allan Feldman]

I am in support of the proposed litigation.  Would be appropriate to
provide a few words to describe the demonstrated personal commitment
of the officers and membership of LPME in gathering signatures
personally, or helping to fund the effort?

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:57 AM, Nicholas Sarwark <chair at lp.org> wrote:
> Dear Fellow LNC Members,
>
> Pursuant to Policy Manual provision Section 2.04(2), I am writing to
> advise you of a proposed lawsuit to be filed in Maine.
>
> As you may be aware, the Libertarian Party of Maine undertook a voter
> registration drive to obtain party status by obtaining over 5,000
> Libertarian voter registrations by December 1, 2015.  The Libertarian
> Party of Maine collected and turned in over 6,000 voter registrations.
> However, many of those registrations were not processed by the local
> officials who had them prior to the Secretary of State evaluating
> whether the party had 5,000 registrations. Per the Secretary of
> State's office, the Libertarian Party of Maine only had 4,489
> registrations by the deadline.  More details here:
> http://ballot-access.org/2015/12/09/maine-secretary-of-state-denies-libertarian-partys-ballot-access/
>
> On hearing this news, I asked Oliver Hall to evaluate the cost of
> filing suit to require the Secretary of State to count the
> registrations that were turned in prior to the deadline but
> unprocessed and/or challenge the early deadline (Dec. 1 in the year
> before the election) as unconstitutionally early.  He has consulted
> with a colleague of his in Maine  who he has worked with before and
> would be willing to be co-counsel on the suit in Maine.  The retainer
> for litigating the entire District Court case would be $4,000, and
> would include: drafting and filing the complaint; drafting and filing
> the motion for temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction;
> preparing supporting affidavits; arguing the motion; and converting
> the (presumably successful) motion for preliminary relief into one for
> summary judgment (i.e., permanent relief) and filing that motion.
>
> Per Mr. Hall, "The complaint would probably assert both facial and
> as-applied challenges to the statute (and the Secretary’s failure to
> process registrations pursuant thereto) under the First and Fourteenth
> Amendments and Section 1983. It would request declaratory and
> injunctive relief. It would also request attorney's fees under Section
> 1988. Assuming we win, and attorney's fees are awarded, the amount of
> the fees awarded would be paid to the LNC, as a refund of the retainer
> fee...."
>
> The attorney in Maine is prepared to work on this case over the
> weekend to get the case filed ASAP.  It is my intention to seek
> approval from the Executive Committee today to go forward with this
> litigation.
>
> I apologize for not giving more notice, but I am writing you as soon
> as I received an estimate from Mr. Hall.  Please let me know if you
> have questions or concerns.
>
> Yours truly,
> Nick
>
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-- 
Marc Allan Feldman
CEO
OpenIVO, Inc.
Beachwood, OH
marc at openivo.com
http://about.me/marcallanfeldman
216-312-4169 (direct)