On October 23, the Federal Election Commission filed this brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Libertarian National Committee v FEC, 19-234. This is the case on whether the First Amendment allows the government to prevent the Libertarian Party from receiving a bequest when the estate is probated, rather than having to wait to receive the money for five, six, or seven years, with small amounts being distributed every calendar year.
The FEC asks the Court not to take the case.
On October 23, the California Secretary of State said that a proposed initiative is now free to start circulating. It would provide that all state and local initiative, referendum, and recall petitions would be on-line at the Secretary of State’s web page. Then any registered voter could sign any such petition on-line.
The proponent is Michael Liddell of Pollock Pines, El Dorado County. The initiative needs 623,212 signatures in the next six months.
On November 12, a New York state trial court in Niagara County will hear the cases filed by the Working Families Party, and the Conservative Party, over whether a state commission has the authority to ban fusion. The legislature created a commission earlier this year that was given the authority to write laws on public funding of campaigns, and also on whether fusion should continue to exist. The WFP and the Conservative Party argue the state constitution does not permit the legislature to delegate its law-making powers on this matter to an unelected commission.
The Working Families case is Hurley v Public Campaign Finance & Election Commission, E169547/2019.
No party received a majority of the seats in Canada’s October 21 election. The Liberal Party will continue on power only with the help of the New Democratic Party. This story says the New Democratic Party will use its power to work for proportional representation for Canada.
Foreign Policy has this article by Lee Drutman, suggesting that the United States would be better off with a multi-party system. He writes, “All else equal, modest multiparty democracies (with three to seven parties) perform better than two-party democracies. Such a party system regularizes cross-partisan compromises and coalition building. Since parties need to work together to govern, more viewpoints are likely to be considered.”
