The Detroit News has this column by Kaitlyn Buss, opinion editor for the Detroit News. She writes that both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are corrupt. As an example of Democratic Party corruption, she mentions Congressman John Conyers. In 2012 the Detroit News endorsed Gary Johnson for president. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
The Patriot-News, daily newspaper for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has this story about the Third Circuit decision of December 13 in Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Cortes.
UPDATE: here is a somewhat more comprehensive story in the Legal Intelligencer.
According to the list compiled by Around the Capitol, a California politics news blog, 51 individuals have already either notified the state campaign finance office that they are intending to run for Governor in the June 2018 primary, or have otherwise indicated an intention. Here is the list. Not all of them will actually run, of course. Filing must be complete in March 2018. But probably most of them will get on the ballot. If they pay the filing fee, they only need 65 signatures.
One of the little-discussed disadvantages of the top-two system in California is that it has a general election ballot with far too few choices, but a primary ballot that, for important office like Governor and U.S. Senator, has too many candidates. In the June 2016 primary there were 34 candidates on the ballot for U.S. Senate. This is because all the candidates from all six qualified parties, plus independent candidates, must all appear on the same ballot.
On December 13, the Eleventh Circuit heard oral argument in Hall v Merrill, 16-16766. The issue is Alabama ballot access for U.S. House independent candidates in special elections. Last year the U.S. District Court had ruled that because the time for collecting signatures in special elections is much less than in regular elections, the petition requirement of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote is too severe.
The hearing lasted 40 minutes, longer than scheduled. Listen to the oral argument at this link. Scroll down to the sixth case, Hall v Secretary of State.
On December 13, Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, testified in a New York city council committee. He strongly recommended that the city implement ranked choice voting in citywide primaries. He said the existing city provision requiring a primary runoff would be terribly expensive and difficult to implement. He said the city was very lucky that no primary runoff was required this year in the Reform Party mayoral primary. Because the Reform Party invites all registered independent voters into its primaries, a Reform Party runoff would have required to city to print hundreds of thousands of ballots. See this story. He said if the city does not provide for ranked choice ballots, then the city should abolish primary runoffs. Thanks to Frank Morano for the link.
