On August 24, a Maine state trial judge ruled that the Republican Party-backed referendum on ranked choice voting for president has enough valid signatures. Because it is now back on the ballot, ranked choice voting can’t be used in the upcoming election for president. In November, voters will vote again on whether to use ranked choice voting for president, but in the meantime it is not legally in force for that office. It is in force for Congress.

The basis for the ruling is that the Secretary of State had improperly invalidated signatures because the circulator in the town where they were gathered was not registered in that town. See this story.

The story does not mention that there is a separate state court lawsuit on whether the petitioning period for the referendum had already expired before the Republican Party circulated that petition.

On August 24, the 336 delegates to the in-person Republican national convention in Charlotte unanimously nominated Donald Trump for president. There were six delegates from each state and territory. However, this limited number of delegates used proxy voting, so that the vote was 2,550 for Trump, and none for anyone else. Thanks to Tony Roza for ths information.

In the November 2020 election, Virginia will have only one independent candidate for Congress on the ballot, and no minor party candidates on the ballot. This is the smallest number of minor party and independent candidates on the ballot for Congress in Virginia since 1938, when there was also only one.

The lone congressional independent this year is David Bruce Foster, in the 2nd U.S. House district. The reason for the much reduced number of candidates is the health crisis.