The Green Party of Taiwan has existed since 1996, but had never elected anyone until the election held a few days ago. See this story.
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Two initiatives are circulating in Maine on election law topics. Maine Citizens for Clean Elections is virtually finished circulating an initiative that would (1) fully fund the public funding program; (2) require disclosure of top donors who make independent expenditures; (3) require disclosure of fundraising for transition and inaugural committees. This initiative has been circulating since May 2014. If it is submitted in January 2015, the vote on it will be on November 3, 2015.
The other initiative would establish ranked-choice voting for all federal and state offices except President. It has only been circulating for a month but seems likely to be finished in January 2015. However, if the sponsors choose not to submit the signatures that early, the initiative would be on the ballot in November 2016 instead of November 2015.
As previously noted, last month Kentucky Educational TV, a government agency, sponsored a U.S. Senate debate and only invited the Democratic and Republican nominees, even though the Libertarians also had a nominee on the ballot. The party sued and failed to gain injunctive relief, and the debate went ahead with only two candidates on October 13.
The party believes it is correct that Kentucky Educational TV erred, and hopes to win declaratory relief. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Arkansas Educational TV v Forbes that when public TV sponsors a candidate debate, it must include every candidate who has a bona fide campaign. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling did not give permission for public TV to exclude people based on poll results.
Kentucky Educational TV is opposing the party’s request to file an amended complaint. The judge will soon rule on whether the party may amend its complaint. An amended complaint will guarantee that the case can’t be ruled moot, and will provide a framework for the next stage of the case. The case is Libertarian National Committee v Holliday, e.d., 3:14cv-63.
As previously noted, on November 10, a U.S. District Court struck down Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. Here is an editorial from Omaha’s daily newspaper, which seems to approve of the decision, but which also advocates that the legislature require signatures from each of Nebraska’s three U.S. House districts.
This story says the percentage of registered voters who voted in some California congressional and legislative races was only one-fourth of the registered voters. The story quotes several experts who express dismay, but no one quoted in the article mentions the point that perhaps California voters don’t like general election ballots with only two candidates on the ballot. In this month’s election, California voters were the only voters in the nation who were not able to vote for any statewide partisan office unless they voted for a Democrat or a Republican.