The Buffalo News has this op-ed by Chris McNickle, author of several books about New York government, politics and history. He says New York should retain fusion (the ability of two or more parties to jointly nominate the same candidate). Thanks to Steve Kamp for the link.
On August 10, tens of thousands of Moscow, Russia residents protested in the streets against ballot access ruling that have invalidated the petitions of a group of independent candidates for City Council. See this story. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.
Salon has this interview with Congressmember Don Beyer about HR 4000, his bill to provide for proportional representation for U.S. House elections.
The bill was introduced on July 25, with five co-sponsors, all Democrats: Jamie Raskin (Md.); James McGovern (Mass.); Jim Cooper (Tn.); and two Californians, Scott Peters and Ro Khanna. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.
On August 7, the Connecticut voters who are challenging the results of a 2018 Connecticut legislative election filed their reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. See it here. The general election was very close, and several hundred voters in that legislative district had been given a ballot that did not include that race. The Connecticut Supreme Court refused to disturb the official outcome because it said the mistake was not done on purpose, and because there was no proof that if the error had not been made, the outcome would have been different.
Feehan v Marcone, 18-1470. The candidate who lost was the Republican nominee. The Court will consider whether to hear this case at its October 1, 2019 conference.
On August 9, the Texas Secretary of State filed this brief in Miller v Doe, the Texas ballot access case that had been filed on July 11. The state’s brief makes much out of the paucity of independent candidate plaintiffs in the case. However, the Eighth and Ninth Circuits have ruled that voters have standing to challenge restrictive ballot access laws, and no circuit has said voters don’t have standing to challenge them.
