The U.S. Supreme Court has put Sarvis v Alcorn, 16-781, on its February 17 conference. This is the case over whether Virginia can constitutionally always put the Democratic and Republican nominees at the top of the ballot. The Court won’t release any information about whether it will take this case until February 21 at the earliest.
So far the state has waived its right to file a response. If the Court is interested in this case, it will probably ask the state to respond before February 17.
Connecticut allows fusion, and the Working Families Party and the Independent Party have put fusion to good use in that state. In 2016 both parties made significant gains in voter support.
The Connecticut Working Families Party polled 5.51% for U.S. Senate. It had nominated the Democratic nominee, Richard Blumenthal, and Blumenthal received 87,948 votes under the WFP label. This election was the first time the WFP had polled over 5% of the vote in a statewide election in any state (not counting races in which the Republican Party didn’t run anyone, which occurred for Massachusetts Auditor in 2006 and Oregon Attorney General in 2008).
The WFP also polled 5.81% of the Connecticut vote for U.S. House (in the four districts in which it had a nominee), its best statewide showing ever for that office. In those four districts it had nominated the Democratic nominee. In one district it had no nominee.
The Independent Party, which almost entirely nominates persons who are also Republican nominees, didn’t have any statewide nominees in 2016. But for State House, it appeared on the ballot in a majority of the districts, something no other party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has done in Connecticut in at least 100 years. Even the Socialist Party, which elected legislators in Connecticut in the 1930’s, did not have nominees in a majority of House districts during that decade. As a result of having so many nominees, the Independent Party got more cumulative votes for each house of the legislature than the Working Families Party did. The Independent Party got 3.87% of the State Senate vote in the districts it contested, and 4.64% of the House vote in the districts it contested.
The Working Families Party has been running for legislature in Connecticut starting in 2002, and for congress since 2004. The Independent Party has done so starting in 2008. Both parties nominate by convention, not primary. In October 2016, the Independent Party had 21,216 registered members and the Working Families Party had 323 registrants. The WFP does not encourage its supporters to register into the WFP; the WFP prefers that they register as Democrats so that they can vote for WFP-prefered Democrats in the Democratic primary.
Political science Professor Michael McDonald authors the web page United States Election Project. Among other things, he keeps track of U.S. voter turnout. His figures show that 60.0% of the voting-eligible population voted in the November 2016 election. By contrast, in November 2012 the figure was 58.6%.
On January 10, Indiana State Senator Greg Walker (R-Columbus) introduced SB 418, which lowers the statewide petition for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from 2% of the last Secretary of State vote to exactly 9,000 signatures. The current requirement is 26,700, but that is lower than the normal requirement because 2014 had an especially lower turnout. Here is the text. Most years over the past 30 years, the requirement has been between 32,000 and 38,000.
Indiana is one of only four states in which Ralph Nader never appeared on the ballot.
The bill also raises the number of signatures needed to put a major party member on a primary ballot (for statewide office) from 4,500 to 9,000. Thanks to Craig Marolf for the news.
On January 10, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the state of North Carolina’s request for a stay, in the case over whether the legislative districts represent an unlawful racial gerrymander and whether the state must hold special legislative elections with new districts. See the Election Law Blog here.
