On October 20, Monmouth Polls released a Virginia gubernatorial election poll. See here; scroll down to question one. It appears that the poll takers did not mention Princess Blanding, who is on the ballot as the Liberation Party nominee. Notwithstanding that, 2% say they favor “another candidate”. It seems obvious that if the poll-takers want to do a good job, they should ask about all three ballot-listed candidates. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
On October 19, the Maryland Libertarian Party held its state convention and nominated David Lashar for Governor. He is the former head of Information Technology for the Maryland Department of Health. See this story.
The Maryland Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified, because it successfully petitioned in 2020, and in Maryland, a party petition puts the party on the ballot for two elections. And even if that weren’t true, it would also be on in 2022 because it polled over 1% for president in 2020. If the party polls over 1% for Governor in 2022, then it will automatically be on in 2024.
The Green Party is also ballot-qualified in Maryland because it also petitioned successfully in 2020.
On October 18, Arkansas filed this brief in defense of its new ban on out-of-state initiative circulators. Liberty Initiative Fund v Thurston, e.d., 4:21cv-460.
Dr. Ervin Yen, who was a Republican State Senator in Oklahoma 2014-2018, has changed his registration to “independent” and will run for Governor in 2022 as an independent candidate. See this story. He was the first, and so far the only, Oklahoma legislator of Asian descent.
A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge has ruled that some voters are entitled to a trial over the reliability of vote-counting machines used in Philadelphia and Northampton Counties. See this story. The machines, known as ExpressVote XL, are manufactured by Elections Software & Systems (ESS) Corporation. They work by having a voter insert a blank ballot into the machine. Then the voter uses the computer touch-screen to mark the ballot.
Most vote-counting machines in the U.S. are different. They ask the voter to fill out a paper ballot, which is then inserted into the vote-counting device.
