Peter Diamondstone, age 82, died on August 30. He founded the Vermont Liberty Union Party in 1970 and ran for a statewide office in Vermont every two years since then. See this obituary, which has a nice quote about Diamondstone from Bernie Sanders. Thanks to James Mahoney for this news.
Ethan Sonneborn, who is a 13-year-old resident of Vermont, says he will run for Governor next year. This story says Vermont has a duration of residency requirement, but no age reuirement. The duration of residency requirement is four years, which Sonneborn meets. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.
The Pennsylvania legislature is about to return after its summer recess. HB 111 has seventeen sponsors and is considered fairly likely to pass. It would eliminate statewide partisan judicial elections for Superior Court and Commonwealth Court. Those courts would be filled by gubernatorial appointment. The voters would continue to elect State Supreme Court justices on a partisan basis.
The bill amends the state constitution. If it passes, then the voters would be asked to approve the idea.
On August 29, a Burlington County (New Jersey) Superior Court ruled that the winner of the June 2017 Democratic primary did not disqualify himself when he said publicly before the primary that if he won the primary, he would resign as the Democratic nominee and let the party replace him. Daniels v Williams, L-1250-17. See this story. The decision said that just because he said he wasn’t running in November doesn’t mean that he wanted people not to vote for him in the primary.
This article in Governing says that proportional representation and ranked choice voting are gaining in the United States. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
