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.
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.
