A Quinnipiac Poll was released on October 30 for the Virginia gubernatorial election next week. It has an interesting breakdown of the vote by various groups of voters. It shows that 6% of independents support Cliff Hyra, the Libertarian nominee. But it shows that fewer than 1% of Democrats, and fewer than 1% of Republicans, support Hyra. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
The new North Carolina ballot access law for parties says a party is on the ballot if its presidential nominee was on the ballot in at least 35 states in the last presidential election. The State Board of Elections is now working on a procedure on how a party should document this. The State Board has already been in touch with the North Carolina Green Party about this. The new provision has no impact just now on any other third party, but Greens can use this provision because Jill Stein was on the ballot in November 2016 in 44 states.
The new law has no impact on the Libertarian Party at this time, because the party was already on the ballot under the alternative provision that keeps parties on the ballot if they got at least 2% for either president or governor. In November 2016 the Libertarian Party got 2.77% for President and 2.19% for Governor.
Japan uses proportional representation. On October 22, it held an election for House of Representatives, to fill 465 seats. Seven parties won seats; also 22 independents were elected. See the wikipedia page about the election.
The U.S. Supreme Court held a conference on October 27, and at that conference considered whether to hear Minnesota Voters Alliance v Mansky, 16-1435. But when the decisions taken at that conference were released on October 30, once more the Court had not taken any action. The case has now been listed in three conferences, all of which produced no decision. It will be set for a future conference.
The issue is the Minnesota law that makes it illegal to wear anything at the polls that suggests a point of view on some political issue, whether that issue is on the ballot or not.
The House of Commons of the United Kingdom will debate proportional representation on November 30, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. The House has set aside 90 minutes. Thanks to Thomas Jones for that news.
