On March 20, the New York village of South Glens Falls held a special election to fill a vacancy on the Village Board. Green Party nominee Christine Elms won the election, which was a partisan election. Although she was the only person whose name was on the ballot, she had two write-in opponents. One of her opponents was a former Mayor of South Glens Falls. Thanks to William Stevenson for this information.
This Politico story reports on an appearance by Ohio Governor John Kasich. He suggests that he has not ruled out running for president in 2020 as an independent. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
Citizens in Charge has filed this amicus curiae brief in Independent Party v Padilla, 17-1200. The issue in the case is whether the California Secretary of State violated the rights of the voters who formed the Independent Party, when he refused to instruct county election officials to tally up how many registered voters the Independent Party has. If that party has approximately 62,000 registered voters, then it should be recognized as a qualified party.
The amicus is very short and demonstrates that it has been very common for states to allow two parties to be on the ballot, even though both shared a common word in their name. The California Secretary of State had said there cannot be a party named “Independent Party” because the American Independent Party is on the ballot.
March 21 was the deadline for candidates to file to run in partisan primaries in Washington, D.C. According to the Board of Elections web page, no Republican is running for Delegate to the U.S. House, Mayor, nor Chair of the City Council. However, there is one Republican running for at-large member of the City Council. All parties need 7,500 votes every two years for one of the citywide offices, to remain on the ballot.
The lack of Republican candidates makes it overwhelmingly likely that the Green and Libertarian Parties will poll enough votes in November 2018 to remain on the ballot. The Green Party always polls enough votes in the District of Columbia to stay on, but the only two years the Libertarian Party polled enough votes was 2012 and 2016. The vote test is tougher in midterm years because there are far fewer votes; therefore getting 7,500 votes is more difficult in midterm years.
The new law concerning the composition of the North Carolina State Board of Elections says the board must have four Republicans, four Democrats, and a member who is neither. The process for choosing the ninth member is: the original eight members choose two individuals, and then the Governor picks one of them. On March 21, the Board settled on two independents, and the same day, the Governor chose one. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
