On October 16, KQED radio in San Francisco aired an hour-long forum on California’s top-two system and its effects on minor parties. Anyone can listen by using this link. The participants all contributed toward a very worthwhile program, although of course the four panelists disagreed with each other. It would be excellent if a similar forum could be broadcast in Oregon between now and election day.
The New York Times of October 14, 2014, has this op-ed by Shiu Sin-por, head of the Central Policy Unit of the government of the Hong Kong special administrative region.
As has been well-reported, China has said that Hong Kong voters will be allowed to choose Hong Kong’s chief executive, in elections starting in 2017. But the rules say no one can run who has not been cleared by the central Chinese government in Beijing. The op-ed defends this policy, and asserts that China is keeping its promise for “universal suffrage.”
This controversy illustrates that the right to vote includes the right of choice for whom to vote, something that many in the U.S. forget. The right to vote includes more than the right to put a ballot in a box and have that vote counted. The right to vote also requires that the voter have a free choice of whom to vote for.
This week Wyoming Public TV is hosting debates for all the statewide races. All ballot-listed candidates are included in all debates, except that the Democratic nominee for U.S. House was apparently excluded. He is Richard Grayson, who lives in Arizona sometimes, and New York city other times, and who reportedly has never set foot in Wyoming. See this story about the debates, which include the nominees of the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties, and one independent candidate.
Wyoming is in the 10th circuit, which ruled in 2000 that states cannot enforce residency requirements on candidates for Congress.
Rhode Island will hold a gubernatorial debate on October 21. The nominees of the Democratic, Republican, and Moderate Party will participate. See the last part of this story.
The story also carries the results of a gubernatorial debate, and the results suggest that the Moderate Party may receive enough votes to retain qualified status. The results: Democrat Gina Raimondo 42%, Republican Allen Fung 36%, Moderate Party nominee Robert Healey 8%, undecided 12%, the two independent candidates together below 1%. Parties remain on the ballot if they poll 5% for Governor (in midterm years).
Here is the Connecticut sample ballot for the November 4, 2014 election. Connecticut, like Delaware, New York, and most counties in New Jersey, no longer uses mechanical voting machines. But those four states continue to design general election ballots as though the mechanical voting machines were still in use. This ballot is unfair to the independent gubernatorial candidate, Joe Visconti, because the column of candidates for Governor lists the two major party candidates, followed by a blank space, and then Visconti is in the row below the blank space. There are probably many voters who will not even notice Visconti’s name.
