On October 13, a four-party debate for U.S. Senate will be held in Arkansas. The debaters will be the nominees of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Green Parties. The debate will be carried live on C-SPAN. Thanks to Mark Swaney for this news.
On October 9, the UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) won a special House of Commons election. Its nominee, Douglas Carswell, had been elected as a Conservative in the previous regular election, but then he had switched parties. He then resigned his seat and ran to remain in that seat, under his new party label. He won almost 60% of the vote. See this story.
In another special election on the same day, for a district which normally votes Labour, UKIP came in second and would have won if its nominee had received 621 more votes. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news.
On October 9, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young, a Clinton appointee, issued an opinion in Common Cause Indiana v Indiana Secretary of State, sou. dist., 1:12cv-1603. The 19-page opinion strikes down an Indiana law that says in Indianapolis (co-terminous with Marion County), no political party may run candidates for more than half of the seats for Superior Court. Almost all counties in Indiana elect Superior Court judges on a partisan basis. But only in Indianapolis are political parties told they can only run nominees for half the seats.
The opinion says “this process is apparently unique in the Nation”, but limited voting exists in other places in the U.S. It exists in Philadelphia for city council-at-large, in several other Pennsylvania counties for county legislative office, in Washington D.C. for city-council-at-large, and in several Connecticut cities for Board of Education. The system is meant to guarantee that the dominant political party won’t win all the seats.
Normally there are no minor party or independent candidates on the ballot in Indianapolis for Superior Court Judge, but there could be. The opinion seems to be based on the fact that because normally only Republicans and Democrats run candidates, the general election for this office is meaningless, because with Democrats running for half the seats, and Republicans running for half the seats, no candidate loses. Page five of the decision says, “This results in a system whereby the judicial candidates, who run at large, face no competition in the general election.” But that is not necessarily always true. The opinion does note that in 2002 the Libertarian Party had a candidate, so at least in that instance, general election voters did have some choice.
Judge Young stayed his own opinion.
Mike Huckabee recently said in a speech that if the Republican Party doesn’t continue to vigorously fight same-sex marriage, he will leave the party and become an independent. See this story.
In 2008, Huckabee ran for the Republican presidential nomination and polled the third highest number of popular votes in Republican presidential primaries. He received 4,191,028 votes, just behind second-place finisher Mitt Romney, who got 4,525,616. John McCain, who got the 2008 nomination, polled 9,862,865.
On October 9, opponents of strict government-photo I.D. requirements for voting at the polls scored two victories.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Wisconsin cannot require such I.D. for the November 4, 2014 election. Here is the one-page order in Frank v Walker, 14A352.
Also, U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ruled the Texas law on that subject unconstitutional and in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act. Veasey v Perry, southern dist., 13-cv-193. Judge Ramos is an Obama appointee. Here is the 143-page opinion, with a 4-page appendix. Thanks to Justin Levitt for the link.
