Six candidates for Mayor of New York successfully completed the petition to be on the November 2021 ballot for Mayor of New York city. In addition, each of the four qualified parties nominated someone.

The six petition candidates are: Quanda Francis, Empowerment; Raja Flores, Humanity United; Stacey Prussman, Libertarian; Skiboky Stora, Our Lawbreaker; Catherine Rojas, Party for Socialism & Liberation; and Fernando Mateo, Save Our City.

The nominees of the qualified parties are: Democratic, Eric Adams; Republican, Curtis Sliwa; Conservative, William Pepitone; Working Families not yet determined.

The petitioning candidates each needed 3,750 signatures. Although that sounds like a modest requirement, there is no other instance for an election in 2021 in which a minor party or independent candidate overcame any petition requirement greater than that.

Congressmembers Rodney Davis (R-Illinois) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia) have introduced a bill to set up a commission of constitutional scholars, to make recommendations for what should be done if no one gets an electoral college majority, and then one of the three candidates being considered for the presidency by the U.S. House dies before the House votes. Here is the text. It doesn’t have a bill number yet.

There are many problems with the U.S. presidential selection process, but most of them have answers. But the scenario mentioned in the bill has no guidelines whatsoever. However, the possibility of no one getting a majority in the electoral college, and then one of the three top candidates dies before the U.S. House votes, seems extremely unlikely. Ever since the 12th amendment passed in 1804, we have only had one presidential election in which no one got a majority of the electoral vote, after disputes about the proper electoral vote count had been settled. Thanks to Election Law Blog for this news.

On July 23, the proponents of a local Ohio initiative filed this brief in the Ohio Supreme Court. State ex rel Schmitt v Bridgeport. The issue is the failure of the Bridgeport clerk to accept their initiative petition, which concerns marijuana enforcement.