On May 17, Connecticut’s Secretary of State announced that the state will automatically register every adult citizen known to exist. Oddly, the new policy was never authorized by any bill in the legislature. See this story. Persons who say they don’t want to be registered to vote will be allowed to decline registration. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
According to this story, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld may seek the Libertarian Party vice-presidential nomination, if the party nominates Gary Johnson for President. He was the Republican Governor of Massachusetts 1990-1998.
Weld has a history with the Libertarian Party. In 2006 he was a candidate for Governor of New York. He accepted the Libertarian Party nomination for that office, but he was also seeking the Republican nomination. When he failed to get the Republican nomination for Governor, he then withdrew entirely from the race, and the Libertarian Party had to find a new nominee.
According to this Los Angeles Times story, Charles T. Munger, Jr., the leading backer of California’s top-two system, is about to make independent expenditures on behalf of Duf Sundheim, one of the three most prominent Republicans running for U.S. Senate in California. Although no poll has been taken for this race for the June 7 primary this month, last month’s California Poll showed a likelihood that no Republican would place first or second. That would mean that the November ballot would only include two Democrats, and no write-ins are permitted.
Charles Munger is one of the California Republican Party’s biggest financial donors. He is also an official in the party. At the recent state convention for the California Republican Party, he was chair of the committee that recommended which statewide ballot initiatives the party should endorse.
Last year, the Liberal government of Canada promised to form an Electoral Reform Commission, to decide how to alter the voting system. Under consideration are different types of proportional representation, and ranked choice voting.
Ironically, the various parties in Parliament are at odds over how many representatives each party should have on the Commission. The government proposes a 12-member committee, with 6 Liberals, 3 Conservatives, and one member each from the Bloc Quebecois, New Democratic, and Green Parties.
The New Democratic Party favors an eleven-member committee with 4 Liberals, 3 Conservatives, 2 New Democrats, and one each from the Bloc Quebecois and Green Parties. See this story.
On May 16, U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock heard oral arguments in Libertarian Party of Maine v Dunlap, 2:16v-2. The hearing went well. The judge said that the weight of authority says that deadlines for new parties to get on the ballot cannot be as early as Maine’s deadline, which is December 1 of the year before the election. He also discussed what kind of relief might be appropriate. He said he would rule soon.
