The Burlington Free Press for July 15 has an extensive story about the first day of the trial in the lawsuit in state court over the constitutionality of the Vermont June petition deadline for independent candidates.
Reply
On July 14, Americans Elect web page posted the national cumulative total of signatures obtained on ballot access petitions across the nation. The web page is normally updated every Thursday, and normally shows that approximately 70,000 signatures had been collected in the previous week. The July 14 tally is 1,574,125, which compares to last week’s tally of 1,501,174. As usual, the vast majority of these are from California.
If Americans Elect had collected 1,574,125 nationwide, properly distributed with the required number from each state, and if it used the easier procedure in California, it would now have enough signatures to place its 2012 presidential nominee on the ballot of all 50 states. But, Americans Elect is going about its job in an extravagent manner, by spending millions to complete the more difficult California procedure, the California 10% petition, instead of doing the far easier and cheaper California 1% registration alternative.
According to this article, Macon, Georgia, is the only city in Georgia with partisan city elections. The city is holding partisan primaries for city office this month, but there is no Republican primary ballot because there are no Republican primary contests. The article suggests that voters who wish to vote for city office must therefore choose a Democratic primary ballot, but of course any voter is free to vote for anyone for city office in the 2011 general election.~
As the article points out, the Macon primary for city office is simultaneous with two special legislative elections. Georgia special legislative elections are non-partisan (although party labels are on the ballot), so the juxtaposition in Macon this year is especially odd, since all voters get the same ballot for the legislative elections.
In California, and some other states, election officials postally mail sample ballots to all voters. In partisan primaries, California election law lets parties include an envelope in the postal package, which enables members of particular parties to send a donation to that party. Of course, a Republican envelope would only be included in the mailing sent to registered Republicans.
On July 13, a California State Court of Appeals ruled that the San Diego Registrar of Voters was correct in 2010, when she let the Republican Party include not just an envelope, but electioneering material making endorsements in ballot measures and non-partisan elections. See the opinion here. The opinion takes no notice of the fact that in future California primaries for state office and Congress, there are no more partisan primaries. The opinion may have little impact on future elections anyway, because a bill is moving through the legislature that deletes the ability of parties to submit anything. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The Burlington Free Press has this brief story about the trial that starts on July 14 in state court, on the constitutionality of Vermont’s June petition deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The trial is expected to last two days.
Huffington Post UK has this extensive interview with Caroline Lucas, the first and only Green Party nominee elected to the British House of Commons. Thanks to GreenPartyWatch for the link.