On August 24, the California Senate again passed SB 1288, accepting amendments made in the Assembly. The bill now goes to the Governor. It allows all cities and counties (not just charter cities and counties) to use Instant Runoff Voting for elections for their own officers if they wish.
The Oregon Working Families Party has nominated one of its own members, Shanti Lewallen, for U.S. Senate. He will oppose incumbent Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. This is the only the second time the Working Families Party in any state has ever run its own nominee for such an important office as President, Governor, or U.S. Senator. The first instance was also in Oregon, and was also against Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. See this story.
Thomas Rudd, incumbent Coroner of Lake County, Illinois, is trying to get on the ballot as an independent candidate. Even though he had enough valid signatures, he was kept off by a lower state court because he had filed a petition to run in the Democratic primary. He withdrew that petition and did not run in the primary, but the lower court said he disqualified himself. See this story.
Jonathan Rauch has this important and lengthy article in The Atlantic, suggesting that laws that weaken political parties are doing great damage to the United States. He is also critical of the laws passed starting in 1974 that regulate federal campaign finance. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough is expected to issue a decision on Thursday, August 25, in Gill v Scholz, central district, 3:16cv-3221. The trial was on August 24. See this story about the hearing. The plaintiff is David Gill, an independent candidate who needed 10,754 valid signatures. He submitted 11,300, but he was challenged and only 8,593 were held to be valid.
UPDATE: see this further story, which is more detailed than the first story.
