In 2008, the voters of Santa Fe, New Mexico, voted to use ranked choice voting for city elections. However, the city is still not using ranked choice voting. On August 30, Fairvote New Mexico sued the city over its failure to implement that system. See this story.
The case is filed in the State Supreme Court, and is State ex rel Perez v City Council of Santa Fe. The court hasn’t decided yet whether to accept the case. Thanks to Electionline for this news.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Husted v A. Philip Randolph Institute on Wednesday, November 8. This is the case over whether Ohio is purging voters from the voting rolls too frequently. The lower court had ruled against the Ohio Secretary of State. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
On August 31, the Libertarian Party of South Dakota, and the Constitution Party of South Dakota, filed this brief in Libertarian Party v Krebs, 4:15cv-4111. This is the case that challenges the March petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties. The case is now two years old but still doesn’t have an opinion from the court.
Soon the state will file a brief, and then briefing will be complete.
This Albany Times-Union story explains that the Reform Party is letting independents vote in its primaries on September 12. It imples that this has never happened before in New York, although some years ago there were some Independence Party primaries for district and local office that also permitted independents to vote. Thanks to several people for the link.
On August 30, the New York Court of Appeals, the highest state court in New York, refused to disturb the ruling of the State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, in Lavell v Baker. That case involved a dispute over whether the Independence Party properly nominated candidates for various local partisan offices in Erie County.
The objectors said the party didn’t follow its own rules, as to whether the state central committee, or the state executive committee, should decide whether to let candidates from other parties run in the Independence Party primary. The lower court, in a split decision, had ruled in favor of the party, and now that win is secure. Thanks to Joe Burns for this news.
