538.com has a story on Gary Johnson and discusses the possibility that he could be elected to the U.S. Senate as a Libertarian from New Mexico this year. The story also lists all the other Libertarian nominees for President, Governor, and U.S. Senator who have polled as much as 9%.
On Friday, August 24, the North Carolina House, convening in another special session, passed two bills changing two statewide ballot measures that will appear on the November ballot. See this story. The Senate will consider those bills on Monday next week. One of the ballot measures concerns the membership of the State Board of Elections. Currently it is a nine-member board, with four Republicans, four Democrats, and one independent.
On August 16, some Florida voters who speak Spanish but not English sued Florida election officials in 32 counties, seeking bilingual ballots for the November 2018 election. Rivera Madera v Detzner, n.d., 1:18cv-152. Already, thirteen other Florida counties already use bilingual ballots. A hearing will be held on September 5, Wednesday, in Tallahassee.
Fred Brown, incumbent member of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council, has filed a lawsuit to remove his only opponent, Christian Motley, from the November 2018 ballot. See this story. The office is non-partisan and each candidate needs 100 valid signatures. Brown says Motley only has 88 valid signatures. A trial court will decide the issue next week.
This example shows that even petition requirements of as few as 100 signatures can sometimes prevent candidates with substantial support from running for office. The nation would be better off if every office had a filing fee option for getting on the ballot.
Steve Poizner, California’s former Insurance Commissioner and a 2018 independent candidate for his old job, spoke in Denver on August 19. The venue was the national meeting of Unite America, which promotes the election of independent candidates. During Poizner’s talk, he displayed a surprising ignorance of California election law and the experience of independent candidates in California in the past.
He said that before the top-two measure took effect in 2011, it was not possible for an independent to run for office in California. That statement comes in minute five. He also said that he is the first independent candidate in California history to get on the general election ballot. That is in minute four. Finally, he said that when he was elected as a Republican in 2006, California had closed primaries.
Actually, California voters elected independent candidates to the legislature in 1986, 1990, 1992, and 1994. Three of those four wins were by Quentin Kopp, who is still living in San Francisco and still very active in politics. It is stunning that Poizner seems unaware of Kopp.
California had a semi-closed primary, not a closed primary, in 2006. For proof, see this page on the Secretary of State’s web page, which shows that in 2006, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party told the Secretary of State that independents could vote in their primaries that year.
Candidates who used the independent procedure in California appeared on the ballot for Governor in 1918 and 1978; for U.S. Senate in 1976; and for president in 1976, 1980, 1988, and 1992.
