The New York Times has this story about candidates being barred from the December 2015 ballot in Venezuela. The end of the article also mentions that one entire political party has also been barred from the ballot.
Reply
Doug Goodman has this interesting analysis of whether there is any conflict between the Nevada Constitution and instant runoff voting.
The Bulletin, daily newspaper for Bend, Oregon, has this story on the various ideas for handling the 2016 primary for the Independent Party. The Independent Party wants not only party members, but independent voters, to be allowed to vote in its primary. The party has a right to make that decision. The complication is that Oregon, for the first time, will be automatically registering every adult citizen known to exist, unless such individuals opt out. Unless those new voters respond to a notice asking them if they want to choose a party, they will be deemed to be independent voters.
The Independent Party is afraid those new voters won’t respond to another notice, letting them know that if they remain independent voters, they can have an Independent Party primary ballot. The party wants the government to send such voters an Independent Party primary ballot automatically, but election officials are worried about the cost.
On June 22, 2015, Level the Playing Field, Peter Ackerman, the Libertarian Party, and the Green Party, sued the FEC over presidential general election debates. Some response from the FEC is due today. Of course the FEC will probably say that it did consider the Level the Playing Field request for a new rule (on July 16, 2015), and that the FEC voted 4-2 not to consider a new rule. This case will transition from a lawsuit complaining about the FEC’s failure to respond, to a lawsuit complaining that the existing FEC regulations violate federal campaign finance law. Federal campaign finance law forbids corporations from donating to candidates for federal office. The question is whether corporate donations to the Commission on Presidential Debate effectively mean they are donating to the Democratic and Republican Party presidential campaigns.
Virginia elects state legislators in November of odd years. This year over half of the races have only one candidate on the ballot. For the 100 House races, only one person is on the ballot in 62 districts. For the State Senate, only one person is on the ballot in 20 of the 40 races. Thanks to Sandy Sanders for this information. Sanders is working to find a sponsor for a bill in next year’s session to ease the definition of “political party.” Current law says it is a group that polled 10% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. Virginia’s 10% is higher than any other state, except Alabama is 20% and New Jersey and Oklahoma are also 10%. Also Georgia has a 1% vote test for statewide office but 20% for party status for the district offices.