Michigan Will Hold Special U.S. House Election to Fill Vacant Seat

Michigan will hold a special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, the 11th district seat. The seat is vacant because Congressman Thad McCotter resigned suddenly after his petition to be on the Republican primary ballot was found insufficient. He could have run as a write-in in the August primary but he chose not to. See this story. The special election will be November 6, and the term will be for only two months.

The U.S. Constitution does not permit anyone to serve in the House unless that person is elected. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

Seven Parties Will be Represented in Lower House of Mexico’s Congress

Mexico held presidential and congressional elections on July 1. Seven parties won seats in the lower house of Congress. See this story. Mexico uses proportional representation for elections to the lower house of Congress.

No session of the U.S. House of Representatives has ever had as many as seven parties represented. The Congress elected in 1914, as well as the one elected in 1916, had five nationally-organized parties represented: Democratic, Republican, Progressive, Socialist, and Prohibition. No Congress since then has had representatives from that many parties.

Brief Filed in Defense of Closed Primaries in Florida

On July 10, the attorney for a local Florida elections office filed this brief, in defense of Florida law that requires closed primaries (unless a political party chooses to open its primary). The case is LaCasa v Townsley, southern district, U.S. District Court, 12-22432-civ.

Plaintiffs in this case are registered voters who are not Democrats. They are seeking to vote in the Democratic primary for Miami-Dade County State Attorney, a partisan post. They argue that they should be allowed to vote in the Democratic primary for that office, because the only candidates who filed to be on any party’s primary ballot for that office are two Democrats (and there are no independent candidates), so in effect whoever wins the Democratic primary wins the election. But, in this particular election, there are two write-in candidates for that position in the general election, and at least one of them is a Republican.

The Florida Constitution says when only candidates from a single party are running, then all voters may vote in that party’s primary for that office. The plaintiffs say this provision should apply to this year’s primary for that office because the write-in candidates in the general election are “sham” candidates, who filed merely at someone’s request, so as to keep the Democratic primary for that office closed to only Democratic voters. The Dade County brief, defending the closed primary, points out that write-in candidates do sometimes win, and cites the example of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski in the November 2010 election.

U.S. District Court in Ohio Rules Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted is Still Bound by Consent Decree on Provisional Ballots Agreed to by Previous Secretary of State

On July 9, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley ruled that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted must continue to abide by a consent decree agreed to by his predecessor Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner. Husted is a Republican and Brunner is a Democrat. The consent decree provides that provisional ballots are valid when they are cast in the right building, but the wrong precinct, and if the provisional voter revealed the last four digits of the Social Security Number when voting provisionally, and if the error was made due to polling place official error.

Apparently Ohio has many polling places in which multiple precincts vote in the same building. The case is Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless v Husted, 2:06-cv-896. It is not known if the Secretary of State will appeal.

This lawsuit is one of at least three lawsuits on the same subject, that have been in both federal court and state court, and have been all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and back. The other lawsuits are Hunter v Hamilton County Board of Elections, in federal court (which appears to be finally over), and State ex rel Painter v Brunner, from the Ohio Supreme Court earlier this year.

Ohio election officials have probably spent millions of dollars in these cases. One wonders why the Ohio legislature doesn’t act to amend the law, to conform it to the federal consent order. Why would anyone of good intent want to disallow a provisional ballot that was cast in the wrong place in a building, but in the correct building, if the mistake is not the voter’s fault?

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Vote on July 10 Whether to Ask Voters to Partially Curtail Ranked Choice Voting

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on Tuesday, July 10, on a measure that would ask the voters in November 2012 if they wish to curtail the use of Ranked Choice Voting in Mayoral elections. Public comment is permitted, and the discussion will start at approximately 2:45 p.m. One measure would eliminate Ranked Choice Voting for Mayoral races and substitute a September election. If no one got 65%, there would be a run-off in November.

Another proposal would make the same change, but for all citywide executive positions, not just Mayor. A third proposal would retain RCV for all office, but for Mayor only, if no one got a majority of First Choice votes in November, there would be a December run-off.

Arkansas Democratic Nominee for U.S. House, 3rd District, Withdraws; Race is Now Between Republican, Green, and Libertarian

On July 9, Ken Aden, the Democratic nominee for U.S. House, Arkansas 3rd district, withdrew. As a result, the November ballot will contain three candidates: Republican incumbent Steve Womack, Green nominee Rebekah Kennedy, and Libertarian nominee David Pangrac. See this story, which does not mention Pangrac but which ought to do so. The 3rd district is the northwest corner of the state.