Attorney Justin Hanson, an Illinois attorney, has filed to be a write-in candidate for U.S. House in the Illinois Third District. This is the district in which the March Republican primary was won by Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier. The only other name on the ballot is the Democratic incumbent, Dan Lipinski. Hanson has already raised $20,000. See this story. Hanson is a former Republican congressional staffer.
It appears that Matt Morgan, the only Democrat running for Michigan’s U.S. House seat, First District, has easily polled enough write-ins in the August 7 primary to become the Democratic nominee in November. It is very rare for anyone to receive enough write-ins in a Michigan primary to be deemed nominated. The law requires the number of write-ins to equal 5% of the number of voters who participate in that party’s primary.
No one was on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House in the First District, which includes the Upper Peninsula. Morgan expected to be on the ballot but his petition had a flaw, so no one was on the Democratic primary ballot for that seat. So his campaign asked voters to cast a write-in, and it appears he has as many as 30,000, far more than the approximately 5,000 he needed. See this story.
On August 9, the West Virginia Constitution Party and its nominee for U.S. Senate, Don Blankenship, asked the West Virginia Supreme Court to put Blankenship on the November ballot. Blankenship v Warner, 18-0712. This news story includes a link to the brief. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the link. UPDATE: here is the brief.
On August 9, Massachusetts Governor Charles Baker signed HB 4834, which sets up automatic voter registration in Massachusetts. Every adult citizen known by the state government to exist will be automatically registered, unless he or she declines.
In states with automatic voter registration, petition validity rates are higher.
The Washington Post has this column about the Green Party’s participation in the Ohio special election for U.S. House earlier this week. The piece, by Post opinion writer Elizabeth Bruenig, defends the party and suggests that Ranked Choice Voting would solve the problem that many of the Green Party’s critics are upset about. It also says that voting is expressive. Thanks to Elizabeth Sandor for the link.
