On October 17, SurveyUSA released a poll taken in California. For respondents who say they favor Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, an additional question was added. It asks if the voter considers his or her vote more of a vote in favor of that candidate, or a vote against one of the major party candidates. Here is the poll. Scroll down to questions seven (for Johnson) and eight (for Stein).
On Sunday, October 16, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker held unconstitutional a Florida procedure for voters who vote by mail. Florida Democratic Party v Detzner, n.d., 4:16cv-607. Florida procedures permit no-excuse absentee mail balloting. However, the ballot of a voter who voted by mail, and whose signature on his or her outer envelope appears not to match his or her signature on the voter registration card, is not counted, and such voter is not informed until after the election is over.
The court order says that when a mail ballot is considered suspect because the signature on the envelope doesn’t match the signature, the voter must be notified before it is too late.
The California Secretary of State here has the votes cast so far in the Mock Election being held in many high schools in California. With approximately 200,000 votes cast so far, the three minor party presidential nominees on the California ballot have 21.9% of the vote between them, whereas Republican nominee Donald Trump has 19.7%. Thanks to Gloria La Riva for this news.
Politico here reports that high-level figures in the national Democratic Party have formed the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which will work for redistricting reform. The group will sponsor statewide ballot initiatives, and also fund lawsuits. The group will have far more credibility if it attacks gerrymanders created by Democrats, as well as gerrymanders created by Republicans. Illinois is an example of a state in which Democrats have gerrymandered the U.S. House and legislative districts, and in which Democrats have fought against redistricting reform.
According to this story, Effective Leadership for America, a Republican PAC that supports the Republican nominee for U.S. House, Arizona First District, is also spending money to boost the Green Party nominee in the same race. The incumbent Democrat. Ann Kirkpatrick, is not running for re-election. In 2014 she defeated her Republican opponent 97,391 to 87,723. No minor party or independent candidates were in this race in 2014.
The 2016 Green Party nominee in this race, Ray Parrish, was nominated in the 2016 Green Party primary with 66 write-in votes. A Libertarian, Kim Allen, ran in the Libertarian primary in this district this year. Allen received 144 write-ins in the Libertarian primary. But under discriminatory Arizona election laws, the Green candidate only needed one write-in to be nominated in his primary, whereas the Libertarian needed several hundred. So the Green is on the November ballot but the Libertarian is not. This law was written in 2015 by the Republican-majority in the legislature, and is being challenged in U.S. District Court by the Libertarian Party. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
