Although some national media figures have been saying they believe minor party candidates hurt Hillary Clinton, this article says many Colorado observers of politics believe that Colorado went for Clinton only because of the Gary Johnson campaign.
This article from the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat says Sonoma County, California, won’t have its votes counted completely until early December. The article explains why it takes so long. Thanks to Markham Robinson for the link.
The village of Broadview, Illinois, held an election on April 9, 2003, for village offices. An independent candidate for Village President, Princess Dempsey, sued the Village Clerk after the election because the Village Clerk, the evening before the election, made a telephone “robocall” recording, and then used the town’s reverse-911 system to phone every voter. The Clerk’s robocall identified herself as an election official, and said that the plaintiff was not a legitimate candidate, that she had been removed from the ballot, and that if the voter voted for Dempsey the vote would be a “lost vote.”
On November 10, 2016, the Illinois State Appellate Court, First District, ruled that the candidate’s lawsuit has merit and that the lower state court (which had dismissed the lawsuit) should re-hear the case. The State Appellate Court said it appears the clerk had violated the candidate’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Here is the 24-page decision. It says the clerk’s action was state action and the clerk may be personally liable for damages.
The Clerk had acted in a hostile manner even before she made the robocall. When the candidate submitted her ballot access petition, the clerk took the petition home with her and showed it to one of the other candidates for the same office. The other candidate challenged the petition, and the Village Electoral Board ruled the petition insufficient. The clerk was on the Board and voted to disqualify the petition. The candidate then went to the lower court, which put the candidate back on the ballot. The vote for Village President was: Judy Brown-Marino, Better Broadview Party, 350 votes; Sherman Jones, Broadview First Party, 925 votes; Norlander Young, Democrat, 249 votes; and the plaintiff, an independent candidate, 131 votes.
On November 8, Maine voters elected three Democratic presidential electors and one Republican presidential elector. This is the first time Maine has elected electors from different parties since 1828. In 1828, Maine elected one elector from each U.S. House district, just as it has been doing starting in 1972. In the 1828 election, Andrew Jackson, the Democratic nominee, carried the Cumberland District. All other districts elected National Republican electors, who voted for John Quincy Adams.
Maine newspaper stories say that the Maine electoral vote split this year is a first, but that is because the reporters who wrote the stories didn’t know about the 1828 election in Maine.
Newt Gingrich endorsed the National Popular Vote Plan in 2014. See this story.
