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.
On August 6, Kshama Sawant polled 36.6% of the vote in the Seattle non-partisan city council election, in district three. She is running for a third term. She is a leader of Socialist Alternative.
Six candidates were on the ballot in District three. The second-place finisher, Egan Orion, received 21.5% and will be in the run-off in November.
The results are not final yet. Sawant spent $270,000 already and the run-off will probably see another large expenditure of campaign funds.
The San Jose Mercury News, the daily newspaper for northern California’s largest city, recently carried this editorial against the new California law that keeps presidential candidates off primary ballots unless they release their income tax returns.
For several months, Florida prison officials have banned The Militant from being delivered to prisoners who subscribe. Recently the Florida Press Association asked the prison officials to relent. See this story in The Militant.
The Socialist Workers Party is the only party in the United States that still publishes a print weekly newspaper.
California State Senator Scott Wiener has a bill, SB 288, to allow the Democratic Party to allow non-citizens to serve on its committees. The Peace & Freedom Party has asked that the bill be amended to include PFP as well, and that amendment will be made when the legislature reconvenes.
In California, as in about half the states, some party officers are elected at the party’s primary. Members of county central committees are elected by primary voters, and for some California parties, those county central committees comprise the state central committee. The bill originally said that non-citizens can be elected, but it has been amended to say non-citizens can be appointed, and that it is the intent of the legislature to later also allow them to be elected, if the party agrees. Thanks to several people for this news.
