The federal government is appealing U.S.A. v Cox. This is the case in which a U.S. District Court Judge in Florida ruled on October 2 that the federal government has no authority to criminalize voting by non-citizens; only states can make that activity illegal. The Eleventh Circuit case number is 26-13597. No pleadings have been filed yet in the Eleventh Circuit.
The Commonwealth Beacon has this article by Paul Schimek in support of Massachusetts’ top-two initiative. He writes, “What about third parties? They don’t have a chance under the current rules. It was more than 100 years ago, in 1917, that a third-party candidate last won a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature.”
It is true that no minor party nominee has been elected to the Massachusetts legislature since 1917, but it is worth noting that Green Party nominee Mark C. Miller, running for the State House in 2010 in the Berkshire County third district, received 45.02% of the vote. Also minor party nominees for the legislatures of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut have been elected numerous times in the last twenty years, and in Rhode Island, a Libertarian in 2020 received 40.53% for State House district 68.
Also minor party campaigns for state legislature have social utility, even when they don’t win. Minor party nominees bring otherwise ignored ideas into public awareness.
The Ventura County Star has this story, titled “Is a Libertarian cabal trying to take over the Oxnard city council?” It reports that city councilmember Aaron Starr, a leader of the California Libertarian Party, has recruited some candidates for the city council election being held next month (terms are staggered, so Starr is not up for re-election). Yet when one reads the story, the three candidates that Starr recruited are not even registered Libertarians. Starr is seeking allies on the council, because on most controversial issues in city government, he is generally outvoted 6-1, according to the story.
Courthouse News Servive has this story about the October 23 hearing in Peace & Freedom Party v Weber, the case involving the California top-two system.
Massachusetts State Representative Andy Vargas (D-Haverhill) writes that voters should not vote for the top-two initiative, because if it passes, it would bring the same problems that it has brought to California and Washington.
