On November 2, the King County Superior Court upheld Seattle’s system of public financing for candidates for city office. Unlike most public financing systems for candidates, voters who support a particular candidate aren’t required to give a small donation to a candidate to help that candidate receive public funding. Instead every voter is given vouchers, and the voter then decides whether to use that voucher to help a particular candidate. Candidates with enough vouchers then receive the public funding.

Here is the eight-page decision in Elster v City of Seattle, 17-2-16501-8. Seattle has non-partisan city elections, and the voucher program treats all candidates equally. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On November 3, Alaska state officials said they will ask the State Supreme Court to reverse the October 17 decision of a trial court in Alaska Democratic Party v State. The Superior Court had ruled that both the U.S. Constitution and the Alaska Constitution protect the ability of the Democratic Party to let independent voters seek its nomination, even though state law says no one may seek a party nomination unless that person is a member of the party. See this story.

On November 3, Zogby Polls released the results of an odd poll that asked voters how they feel about various conceivable presidential candidates who might run as independent candidates. See the results here.