Florida Amendment Four, which needed 60% to pass, has 64.4% of the vote, as of midnight east coast time. There was no statewide ballot measure anywhere in the United States more important than this one. It will enfranchise over 1,400,000 individuals.
On November 2, a U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued this 3-page Joint Stipulation, letting the six plaintiffs in Spirit Lake Tribe v Jaeger cast a vote tomorrow. The state requires photo voter ID that includes a street address, but the plaintiffs in this case didn’t have a street address, or at least didn’t have a street address that everyone agreed was correct. This is a common problem in North Dakota on reservations.
On October 31, Pennsylvania State Representative Vanessa Brown (D-Philadelphia) was convicted of six counts of bribery. However, she is on the ballot unopposed as a candidate for re-election. See this News Growl story.
Michael Feinstein, former Mayor of Santa Monica, has this Fox & Hounds opinion piece calling on the California legislature to hold hearings on the top-two system. As the column points out, the legislature passed the measure in 2009 without holding any legislative hearings on the bill.
In the last few days, Jack Gargan died at the age of 88 in Thailand, where he had been living. Gargan had formed an organization called T.H.R.O. in 1990, which encouraged voters not to re-elect their member of Congress. In 1991, after his movement had become quite well-known, he and John J. Hooker conceived of the idea that Ross Perot should run for President as an independent. Gargan organized mass meetings and roused the audience to encourage this idea, even giving anyone who wanted a sign that said “Run Ross Run” at a meeting at which Perot was speaking.
Gargan also became the second national chair of the Reform Party, which had been organized in 1995. In 1998, Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota on the Reform Party ticket. Gargan welcomed that victory, but Perot did not, and Perot’s allies helped recall Gargan as national chairman in February 2000 in a national convention in Nashville. Here is the wikipedia page about Gargan.
