Does the Constitution Provide More Ballot Access Protection for Presidential Elections Than for U.S. House Elections?

Both the U.S. Constitution and The Federalist Papers suggest that voters ought to have more freedom to vote for the candidate of their choice for the U.S. House of Representatives than they do for the President or the U.S. Senate. Yet, strangely, for the last thirty-three years, the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts have ruled that the Constitution gives voters more freedom to vote for the candidate of their choice in presidential elections than in congressional elections. Also, state legislatures, which have been writing ballot access laws since 1888, have passed laws that make it easier for minor-party and independent candidates to get on the ballot for President than for the U.S. House. As a result, voters in virtually every state invariably have far more choices on their general election ballots for the President than they do for the House. This Article argues that the right of a voter to vote for someone other than a Democrat or a Republican for the House is just as important as a voter’s right to do so for President, and that courts should grant more ballot access protection to minor-party and independent candidates for the House

An Analysis of the 2004 Nader Ballot Access Federal Court Cases

The article begins by stating that voters ability to vote for minor party candidates for presidential elections have generally been protected by federal courts as long as they have gotten some media exposure, and Ralph Nader, after not having received this protection attempted to file for injunctions in federal courts. It then goes through Naders claims and suits, including against a discriminatory number of signatures, whether out of state circulators may work, his North Carolina and Ohio write-in lawsuits. The articles conclusion is that federal courts did a poor job in deciding whether to grant Nader injunctive relief and how their decisions go against the essence of a democratic society which should be allowed to vote for whomever they want

Characterisation of a chlororespiratory pathway in Beta vulgaris and Trifolium repens : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Plant Biology at Massey University, New Zealand

The chloroplast respiratory pathway (chlororespiration) is postulated to interact with the photosynthetic pathway through the plastoquinone (PQ) pool. Two enzymes are proposed to operate in the pathway: an NAD(P)H dehydrogenase that is homologous to the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase, and a putative terminal oxidase. To study the operation and regulation of the chlororespiratory pathway in two higher plant species, silverbeet (Beta vulgaris L.) and white clover (Trifolium repens L.), two approaches have been used. The first uses salicylhydroxamic acid (SHAM), an inhibitor of the mitochondrial quinol-oxidising alternative oxidase, to identify the site of inhibition during electron transfer through the photosynthetic electron transfer chain. The second uses antibodies to two subunits of the NAD(P)H dehydrogenase complex, and examines changes in accumulation of these proteins during physiological conditions proposed to regulate the operation of the NAD(P)H dehydrogenase. For the first part, inhibition by SHAM on the photosynthetic electron transfer chain was shown to be in the vicinity of QA using oxygen electrode and fluorescence analysis, and a number of specific photosynthetic electron acceptors, donors and inhibitors in order to isolate specific parts of the photosynthetic electron transfer chain. By the analysis of electron transfer through the whole chain. PS I, PS II and electron transfer from P680 through to QA, inhibition by SHAM was shown to be in the vicinity of QA. These observations are consistent with the reported effects on chlorophyll fluorescence, but do not exclude the existence of an alternative oxidase in the thylakoid membrane. To examine the accumulation of the NAD(P)H dehydrogenase complex, antibodies to the NDH-F subunit from barely and the NDH-K subunit from pea were used. Preliminary experiments revealed that the NDH-F antibodies recognised a protein of 79 kDa in isolated silverbeet thylakoid membranes, and the NDH-K antibody recognised a 28 kDa in a preparation of extracted thylakoid membrane proteins from silverbeet. In etiolated silverbeet seedlings, a protein of 31 kDa was recognised by the NDH-K antibody. This recognition was lost in the seedlings following exposure to 12 h and 24 h of light. A protein of 33.1 kDa was recognised by the NDH-K antibody in leaves harvested over a 24 hour period, with no notable difference in level of accumulation throughout the day/night periods. During leaf development in white clover, a protein of 69 kDa, which was more prevalent in senescent leaves, was recognised by the NDH-F antibody, while the NDH-K antibody recognised a protein of 35 kDa that was more prevalent in mature, photosynthetically competent leaves. These results are evaluated in terms of providing evidence for the developmental regulation of chlororespiration in chloroplasts of silverbeet and white clover

The Valence of Sulfur in Dithionates

It has been shown by Lindh [1] and others [2] that the shift in the K absorption edges for various compounds of sulfur, chlorine, phosphorous, iron, and some other substances, depends chiefly on the valence of the element in a given compound. With increasing valence in a given element the wave-length of the edge shifts to smaller values. Stelling [3] has explained the effect of valence as being due to the screening effect of electrons in external parts of atoms. To be sure, other factors influence the position of the edges, such as other elements occurring in the compounds, and lattice structure, but these factors produce in general only minor fluctuations around a mean value, whereas the mean values for the several valences show rather wide divergences. For example, the wave-lengths of the principal K edge of a large number of 4- and 6-valent inorganic sulfur compounds practically all lie within half an X-unit of the means of their respective groups, whereas the means themselves are separated by 8 X. U. A similar state of affairs is observed in the 2-valent compounds. The edges do not lie quite so close to the mean, but the mean is 13 X. U. from that of the 4-valent compounds. All the substances thus far investigated bear out the general statements above. In view of the rather large body of facts now before us, it seems legitimate to try to use x-ray absorption data to obtain information on the valence state of an element in a compound. The substance used in the present investigation was potassium dithionate, the object being to determine the state of the two sulfur atoms in K2S2O6. Lindh [4] has already shown that for Na2S2O3 and some other thiosulfates there is not just a simple absorption edge, but two edges, corresponding in position to the valence states SII and probably Siv, which states are generally assumed by chemists for the two sulfur atoms in the thiosulfates. Now if valence is calculated in the usual way, then on the assumption that the sulfur atoms of the dithionates are in the same state we get for them a valence of V, and we would expect to find the K absorption edge corresponding to a single state, rather than the two edges shown by the thiosulfates

First Snowfall

Poem by Sue Winge