The West Virginia Secretary of State has released new voter registration data: Democratic 48.70%; Republican 29.08%; Libertarian .18%; Green (Mountain) .134%; independent and other 21.89%.
Just prior to the November 2014 election, the West Virginia percentages were: Democratic 50.61%; Republican 29.45%; Libertarian .15%; Green (Mountain) .129%; independent and other 19.65%. Thanks to Michael for the new data.
On July 2, the Women’s Equality Party of New York filed its bylaws and a list of its interim officers. See them here. The party became ballot-qualified on November 4, 2014 by polling over 50,000 votes for Governor. Thanks to Mike Drucker for the link. Here is a news story about the filing.
There is also a Women’s Equality Party in Great Britain, but it is a bona fide party, whereas it seems likely the New York Women’s Equality Party will be completely controlled by Democrats.
According to this story, Fox News has refused to say (so far, anyway) which polls it will use to determine invitations for its August 6 Republican presidential debate. The story shows that the Fox description of which polls it will use is vague. Fox implies that there are only five nationally recognized polling companies, but the story says there are more than that. The story also shows the various polls don’t agree with each other as to which are the top ten candidates.
On July 2, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed SB 121. Wisconsin already permitted write-ins and already said that they should be counted for candidates who had filed a campaign finance report. But, except for presidential write-ins, the old law did not specify a deadline for such a campaign finance report to be filed. The bill says write-ins shall be counted if the write-in candidate files a campaign finance report by noon on the Friday before the election (however, presidential write-ins already had a write-in filing deadline that is somewhat earlier, and their own rules on filing).
Wisconsin is to be commended for allowing very late filing by write-in candidates. A major purpose of allowing write-in votes is to allow for last-minute unexpected events that might cause the need for late entry of write-in candidates. Yet states like Texas, Florida and Ohio set write-in filing deadlines several months before the election.
On July 2, a Nevada trial court ruled that a petition to recall a particular state judge in Las Vegas has enough valid signatures. The judge who is being recalled will appeal to the State Supreme Court. Nevada recalls for local office require the signatures of 25% of the last vote cast for that office. This is apparently the first judicial recall petition in state history to have enough valid signatures. See this story.
