Alaska has virtually finished its vote-counting. Measure 2, which institutes a top-four system, combined with ranked choice voting in the general election (but not the primary election), passed with 50.55% of the vote.
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According to this story, Louisiana legislators and election officials are considering changing the state’s election system, so as to reinstate having party nominees.
California Elections Code 13205 says, in part, “Additional instructions to voters shall appear on the ballot…In elections when electors of President and Vice President of the United States are to be chosen, there shall be placed upon the ballot an instruction as follows: ‘To vote for all of the electors of a party, stamp a cross in the square opposite the names of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of that party. A cross stamped in the square opposite the name of a party and its presidential and vice presidential candidate is a vote for all the electors of that party, but no other candidates.'”
Leaders of the American Independent Party have noticed that 53 of the 58 counties did not include this instruction on the November 3, 2020 ballot. The only counties that did include the language are Alpine, Inyo, Kern, Nevada, and Santa Barbara.
My own sample ballot, from San Francisco, merely says, “Federal”. Below that is “President and Vice President.” Below that, “Vote for One Party”. Below that are the names of candidates for president and vice president, with a party label. The words “presidential electors” do not appear. I checked my collection of ballots and it appears the last time a San Francisco County ballot included the words “presidential electors” was the 1972 ballot. Thus, the problem seems to be an old one.
Most states have laws that require general election ballots in presidential years to explain that the voters are really voting for elector candidates.
On October 28, the Eleventh Circuit refused to rehear Jacobson v Lee, 19-14552. This is the Democratic Party’s Florida lawsuit on ballot order. The Democratic Party had lost in the Eleventh Circuit earlier. The Eleventh Circuit said that ballot order cases cannot be heard in federal court because the issue is a “political question” and it is impossible for courts to order objective relief. That opinion is sharply at variance with 50 years of jurisprudence in other federal courts. It is possible the Democratic Party will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
The Florida law says the party that won the last gubernatorial election will enjoy the top line.
The Eleventh Circuit refusal to rehear the case also caused the Georgia Democratic Party case to be dismissed. That case is S.P.S. ex rel Short v Raffensperger, in the northern district.
The Democratic Party’s West Virginia ballot order lawsuit is pending in the Fourth Circuit. Nelson v Warner, 20-1860. The party’s Arizona lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in July 2020.
On November 16, the Alabama Libertarian Party filed this opening brief in Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, 20-13356. This is the case challenging the law that says the qualified parties receive a free list of the registered voters each year, but unqualified parties must pay approximately $36,000 for the list.
In 1970 the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a decision of a 3-judge court that said if the state gives the list free to qualified parties, it must also give it free to unqualified parties that are trying to get on the ballot. Despite this precedent, the U.S. District Court upheld the Alabama law and cited the state’s interest in saving money.