New York city is holding partisan primaries on June 24 for city office. Because the city uses ranked choice voting, the results won’t be known until July. There is a great deal of interest in the Mayoral primary. The first-place votes will be known on the evening of June 24. As of 9:45 pm eastern time, Andrew Cuomo is losing. See here.
UPDATE: Andrew Cuomo has conceded. See here.
On June 24, the Wisconsin Assembly passed AB 35. It lets independent candidates withdraw from the November ballot. The bill was introduced as a result of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presidential candidacy last year. Kennedy wanted to withdraw but there was no procedure for him to do that, so he was forced to remain on the ballot.
On June 24, the Wisconsin Assembly passed AB 149. It expands the methods for a qualified party to nominate presidential elector candidates. Current law says the party’s legislators, or its legislative candidates, choose the electors. The bill says a qualified party can also nominate presidential elector candidates in a state party meeting.
In 2024, the Wisconsin Green Party was a qualified party, but it didn’t have any legislative candidates. It nominated presidential elector candidates anyway, by party meeting. But then the Democratic Party challenged Jill Stein and said she should be removed from the ballot because her electors hadn’t been chosen properly. The State Supreme Court rejected the challenge, so she stayed on the ballot.
Assuming AB 149 passes, that should prevent that type of challenge from being filed in the future.
On June 24, Maine State Senator Rick Bennett said that he has switched his registration from Republican to independent, and that he will run for Governor next year as an independent. See this story.
Bennett has served as the Republican Party state chair; as Maine’s Republican National Committeeman; as as President of the Maine Senate; as a Republican nominee for U.S. House; and as the state’s Republican presidential elector from the 2nd District. As an elector, he voted in the electoral college for Donald Trump in 2016.
On June 24, the Moderate Party of New Jersey asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to hear In re Malinowski Petition for Nomination for General Election. This is the lawsuit that argues that the State Constitution protects the right of two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. The Moderate Party had wanted to nominate an individual who was also the Democratic nominee for U.S. House. The State Appeals Court had upheld the ban on fusion.
