Forbes has this commentary by David Davenport, on California’s top-two system and the 2016 U.S. Senate race. The title is “Beware Election Reforms that Eliminate Voter Choice.” He summarizes political science research that shows the California top-two system has not changed who gets elected, or how they behave once in office. Then he points out that a California Poll finding that half of all Republicans say they will leave U.S. Senate blank this year when they vote in November.
According to this story, Evan McMullin said on September 2 that he wants to debate Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. The story implies that McMullin did not mention Darrell Castle or Rocky De La Fuente, both of whom will be on the ballot in more states than McMullin will.
Rocky De La Fuente this year is being kept off the November ballot in three states because of state laws on “sore losers” and prior affiliation with a major party. See the underneath posts on Alabama and Arkansas, where no court challenges have been filed. De La Fuente does have a pending case in Pennsylvania on the same issues, although the Pennsylvania case does not involve a state that has contradicted itself in the past over whether presidential primaries are covered by sore loser laws. The Pennsylvania case is De La Fuente v Cortes, m.d., 1:16cv-1696. It has a status conference on October 31, 2016, far too late to restore De La Fuente to the ballot, but a vehicle for resolving the issue.
Article II of the U.S. Constitution makes it utterly clear that the candidates in November, for states that choose to allow popular voting for president, are the candidates for presidential elector. In the early years of the 20th century, this was obvious to everyone, because general election ballots listed all the candidates for presidential elector, and voters could vote for individual candidates for elector. Thus voters could even split their tickets, and express support for more than a single presidential candidate.
Another issue is whether the U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, from 1995, means that sore loser laws for federal office are unconstitutional for candidates for president and congress.
Virtually every day, there are interesting presidential polls, and BAN does not usually cover them. However, a poll released on September 2 by WMUR Granite State Poll is noteworthy. It shows that 27% of New Hampshire voters age 18-34 support either Gary Johnson or Jill Stein.
It also shows that New Hampshire self-identified independent voters are giving a plurality of their votes to Gary Johnson. Johnson receives 37% of independents, whereas Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each have 24% support.
The state results as a whole are: Clinton 43%; Trump 32%; Johnson 12%; Stein 4%; someone else 3%; undecided 5%. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
A Fox News Poll released September 1 shows that 24% of voters under age 35 support either Jill Stein or Gary Johnson. See page thirteen, question 2.
The Arkansas Secretary of State, like the Alabama Secretary of State this year, checked Rocky De La Fuente’s petition and determined that he had enough valid signatures. Then, he noticed that De La Fuente had run in the Democratic presidential primary this year and wrote him a letter saying he could not be on the Arkansas ballot. He sent the letter on August 9, but the letter was never delivered, so this news was not discovered until this past week.
The Arkansas Secretary of State is aware that Arkansas let Lyndon LaRouche on the November 1992 ballot as an independent, even though LaRouche had run in the Arkansas Democratic Party presidential primary in 1992. The law has not changed since 1992 in any material sense. The Arkansas Secretary of State, in a new letter, now says that even if De La Fuente had not run in the presidential primary, he still couldn’t be on the ballot, because both he and his vice-presidential candidate live in Florida. The Arkansas Secretary of State’s letter says the 12th amendment does not permit people to be president and vice-president if they live in the same state. This is not true. The 12th amendment only says that presidential electors from a particular state can’t vote for individuals for both offices who currently live in the same state as the elector does.
The Connecticut Secretary of State had come to the same conclusion about the 12th amendment in July, but then when it was pointed out that the 12th amendment does not bar a president and vice-president from living in the same state, Connecticut had the good grace to withdraw its objection. Another flaw in the argument is that if De La Fuente carried a state in November, he or his running mate would be free to move to another state before the electors vote in mid-December. The 12th amendment does not relate to the past residence of any presidential or vice-presidential candidate, just the residence as of the mid-December electoral college meeting.
Arkansas has already printed its November 2016 ballots, so there are practical problems with any potential lawsuit.
