At the recent election, Lane County, Oregon voters narrowly rejected STAR voting, a new idea for a voting system. It received 48% and if it had pased, it would have been used to elect county officials. Lane County includes Eugene, the home of the University of Oregon. It is not easy for new ideas for voting systems to be accepted. See this story. Thanks to Leonardo Quevado for the news.
On November 2, the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion in Libertarian National Committee v Holiday, 17-6216. The case concerned a U.S. Senate debate in Kentucky in 2014, when Senator Mitch McConnell was running for re-election. The Libertarian Party petitioned for a place on the ballot in that race, and hoped to be included in candidate debates. The party perceived that Kentucky Educational Television set rules for inclusion in that debate, but then when it realized that the Libertarian might qualify, it changed those rules. The new rules required that the candidate have raised at least $100,000 and be at 10% in the polls.
The decision barely mentions that evidence, and upholds the debate exclusion. The decision even says that debate sponsors need not have any objective criteria, much less that the sponsor must publish those criteria. The decision erroneously says that the Kentucky Libertarian Party is not automatically on the ballot. That was true in 2014, but it is not true now, and the decision should have clarified that. The decision is by Judge Raymond Kethledge (a Bush Jr. appointee), and signed by Judges Alice Batchelder (a Bush Sr. appointee) and Helene White (a judge who was first nominated by Clinton but didn’t get confirmed until Bush Jr. re-appointed her).
Although the election returns for 2018 are far from complete, it is possible to know now that the minor party and independent vote for the top office in each state this year is only 2.8%. This is the lowest percentage since 1982, when it was only 1.8%. The highest percentage since World War II was 2010, when it was 5.4%.
“Top office” means the most important office in each state. Governor is deemed to be the most important office in each state, if that state held a gubernatorial election. For states without gubernatorial elections, U.S. Senate is considered the top office. For the handful of states that had neither office up, the top office is the statewide office that is closest to the top of the ballot. Kentucky was the only state with no statewide offices up, so for Kentucky, U.S. House is considered the most important office.
On Wednesday, Arizona election returns showed that the Republican nominee was winning. But as of the evening of Thursday, November 8, the Democratic nominee is 9,610 votes ahead. Here is a link to the Arizona Secretary of State’s web page for that race.
Here is a link to the unofficial Tennessee gubernatorial election returns. As noted earlier, there were 25 candidates on the ballot with the label “independent.” Their votes ranged from 5,172 to 493.
