August 22, 2008 - The Marion County Circuit Court, Judge Paul Lipscomb, today ruled against the Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) in the lawsuit described below in this post. The court denied the preliminary injunction sought by the IPO and others. This does not end the case, but the denial of the preliminary injunction means that all candidates who have accepted nominations both from the IPO (or any minor party) and by a major party (Democratic or Republican) will be identified on the November 2008 ballot solely as the candidate of the major party.

"We believe that the Oregon statute allows each candidate to have up to two party labels on the ballot," said IPO state chair (and attorney in the case) Linda Williams. "We are disappointed that the information conveyed to voters on the November ballot will be restricted to only one party per candidate."

The court's brief opinion is attached.

Independent Party goes to court to win ballot fight

Posted by Jeff Mapes
August 12, 2008 18:18PM

The fledgling Independent Party on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Marion County seeking to force the Oregon secretary of state to allow candidates to list more than one party nomination on the ballot.

Yes, I know, that top sentence makes you go, "huh?" Bear with me a moment.

The Independent Party is now the third-largest party in Oregon, although with 21,000 registrants it is still tiny compared to the 879,000 registered Democrats and 672,000 Republicans in the state.