Various legal scholars have questioned the constitutionality of the California gubernatorial recall rules. See this Politico story. The second half of the story suggests that California should not have allowed any candidates to file to become the new Governor, because the state constitution says that when there is a vacancy in the office of Governor, the Lieutenant Governor becomes Governor. But, the precedent against that idea was set in the 2003 gubernatorial recall.

The problem in the first half of this article is caused by section 11381(c), which says, “No person whose recall is being sought may be a candidate to succeed himself or herself.” On the other hand, voters are still free to cast a write-in vote for Gavin Newsom, because section 11322 says write-in space should be on the ballot. The Newsom votes won’t be counted, but if there were a lawsuit involving the first problem mentioned in the Politico story, a court could order them to be counted.

Canada will hold a parliamentary election on September 20, Monday. The government announced this on August 15. See this story, which has a photo of the leaders of five of Canada’s most active political parties.

Here is a story about the Green Party of Canada.

This story says a poll shows Mayor Byron Brown leading in his re-election campaign in Buffalo, New York, even though he is a write-in candidate and even though his opponent, Democratic nominee India Walton, is the only name on the ballot. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.