Mike Feinstein has this op-ed in the Santa Clarita Valley Signal, a daily newspaper in Los Angeles County. It explains the advantages that would occur if California and also the U.S. used proportional representation.
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In 2020, the Texas ballots didn’t have a straight-ticket device, the first time ever since the 1950’s. Removing the device effective 2020 seems to have helped increase the percentage of the vote for lower-ticket Libertarian candidates.
In 2018, in the U.S. House districts in which there was a Republican, a Democrat, and a Libertarian, the Libertarian U.S. House candidates polled 1.66% of the vote.. In 2020, in Texas U.S. House districts with a Democrat, Republican, and Libertarian, the Libertarians polled 2.43%.
In statewide judicial partisan races with all three parties in the race, in 2020, the three Libertarians polled 2.52%, 2.34%, and 2.51%. In 2018, there was only one judicial race with three parties, and the Libertarian in that race polled 2.28%.
West Virginia defines a qualified party to be a group that got at least 1% for Governor. Last month, the Independent Party of West Virginia, a new group, tried to get Marshall Wilson on the ballot as a candidate for Governor. Although his petition failed, due mostly to the health crisis, Wilson campaigned as a write-in candidate, and received a number of votes in excess of 1%. The party has asked the Secretary of State to recognize it. The state has not responded yet.
On Tuesday, December 15, the Second Circuit heard oral argument in SAM Party v Cuomo, 20-3047. The three judges on the case are Robert D. Stack (Clinton appointee), Michael H. Park (Trump appointee), and Steven J. Menashi (Trump appointee).
The hearing lasted 30 minutes. Anyone can hear the argument at this link. Choose “archive of audio oral arguments”. The SAM argument is the only case argued on December 15, so it is easy to find the link if one knows that date.
The state made several arguments that are factually incorrect. The attorney for the state said that Maryland is a state that requires a party to poll a certain share of the vote for president in order to retain its party status. This is not correct. In Maryland, a party with a certain registration remains permanently on the ballot, whether it runs for president or not. Furthermore, Maryland has a party petition, and if it is circulated in a presidential year, the party then enjoys qualified status for the next two elections; therefore it need not run for president in order to remain on the ballot.
The attorney for the state also said that a state has an interest in testing the viability of a party every two years, and because there is sometimes no U.S. Senate election in New York (as was the case in 2020), the state must use the vote for president to determine whether a party should remain on the ballot. He said, “It’s the only test available.” In reality, a state can use a registration test, or test of whether the party continues to be organized, or a test of how many nominees for all office a party chooses to run.
On December 10, James R. Adams filed a new federal lawsuit against the Delaware law that requires all judges in the most important three types of court to be registered Republicans or Democrats. Adams v Carney, 1:20cv-1680.
The U.S. Supreme Court a few days had ruled in Adams’ first case that Adams lacked standing, because of various actions or things he had said. This time Adams has done everything he can to show he does have standing. Here is his new complaint.. It shows that he applied for a judicial post in early 2020 (but was rejected). Also it shows that he is again an active member of the bar.