Iowa held its primaries June 5, and no Republican filed for Attorney General. Now, though, some Iowa Republicans want to get a candidate on the November ballot. They are attempting to complete an independent petition for Patrick Anderson. See this story. Anderson may try to use the ballot label “GOP”. Iowa lets petitioning candidates choose a party label if it not too similar to the name of a qualified party.
On August 25, the Democratic National Committee changed some national party rules. Superdelegates will no longer be able to vote for president on the first ballot at national presidential conventions. See this story. This is a victory for the Bernie Sanders wing of the party. Because virtually all the superdelegates in 2016 were Hillary Clinton supporters, she enjoyed a big lead in the race for the nomination even before any presidential primaries or caucuses had been held.
The Democratic National Committee also passed rules requiring states that use caucuses to allow absentee voting in those caucuses.
On August 22, a Connecticut state trial court ruled that the Waterbury-based faction of the Independent Party includes the true state party officers. The opposing faction, the Danbury-based group, plans to appeal. See this story. The Waterbury faction tends to prefer that the Independent Party run candidates who are not also major party nominees. The Danbury group generally prefers to cross-nominate Republican nominees.
On August 24, a Florida state lower court ruled that Ryan Torrens should not be allowed to run in the Democratic primary for Attorney General. He is one of two candidates on the ballot for that position. The primary is Tuesday, August 28, so of course the ballots are all printed. If the order is not overturned, votes for Torrens won’t be counted. See this story. Torrens is appealing. The basis for the decision is a campaign finance violation.
On August 24, Ohio election officials finished tallying the votes in the August 7 special election for U.S. House, 12th district. The final results: Republican Troy Balderson 104,328; Democrat Danny O’Connor 102,648; Green Party nominee Joe Manchik 1,165.
