On September 24, Republican opponents of ranked choice voting asked the Maine Supreme Court to stay its own ruling on whether voters will use ranked choice voting for president in November. See this story. Probably the Maine Supreme Court will refuse, and then the Republican Party opponents of RCV will ask for U.S. Supreme Court review.
On September 25, the Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies released a presidential poll for California. Biden 67%; Trump 28%; other or undecided 5%. Scroll down to page three. The results are broken down by demographic group. The age category is interesting. The younger the respondent, the more likely that respondent chose “other”.
On October 2, oral argument will be heard in Boydston v Padilla in San Bernardino County Superior Court, CIV-DS-1921480. This is the case filed last year by the Independent Voters Project, which argues that the California election laws concerning the presidential primary violate the state and federal constitutions.
In California, each qualified party is entitled to its own presidential primary, and each party is free to decide for itself whether to allow independent voters to vote in its primary. Independent Voters Project argues that the system discriminates against voters who are registered independents. In both 2016 and 2020, the Democratic, Libertarian, and American Independent Parties allowed independents to vote in their presidential primaries. The Republican, Green, and Peace & Freedom Parties did not. The plaintiffs failed to get injunctive relief last year, and the new hearing is to decide declaratory relief. Here is the brief of the Independent Voters Project. The brief does not mention that the true purpose of a presidential primary is to elect delegates to party presidential national conventions. Thanks to Chad Peace for the link.
On September 24, Marquette Law School released its presidential poll. See here. Biden 50%, Trump 40%, Jorgensen 3%, Hawkins 2%, someone else 3%, no preference 2%.
Adam Charles Weeks, the Legal Marijuana Now Party nominee for U.S. House in Minnesota’s 2nd district, died recently. Under a unique Minnesota law passed in 2013, the death of the nominee of a qualified party in a partisan race closer than 79 days before an election means the seat can’t be filled until the following February. See this story. Although voters will see the race on their November ballots, the votes in that race will not be counted. The election will be February 9.
The U.S. House 2nd District of Minnesota is one of the most competitive districts in the nation. The Republican nominee won the seat in 2016 by about 7,000 votes, but the Democratic nominee won the seat in 2018 by about 17,000 votes. Thanks to Tony Roza for the link.
