The October 31 Argus Leader has this op-ed advocating ranked-choice voting. The Argus Leader is Sioux Falls’ daily newspaper, and is the largest newspaper in South Dakota.
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On October 30, Lou Allstadt, a prominent opponent of fracking, endorsed Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for Governor of New York. See this story about the endorsement, and this article about Allstadt. Allstadt is a former executive vice-president of Mobil Oil and a resident of Cooperstown, New York. Although he is an independent, as the article says, he was elected to local partisan office as the Democratic nominee.
The Democratic nominee for Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, says he won’t decide his policy on fracking until more is known. Hawkins is against fracking. The New York gubernatorial race is one example of many that shows the value of minor party and independent candidate activity. If New York state had a top-two system, the only candidates on the November ballot would be Rob Astorino and Andrew Cuomo, and it wouldn’t be possible for anti-fracking voters to cast a vote that communicates their belief.
The number of signatures required for Pennsylvania statewide minor party and independent candidates in 2016 will be determined by how many votes are cast in the November 2015 statewide partisan judicial elections. According to this story, there will be three vacancies on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court filled in November 2015.
The existence of the 2015 judicial vacancies is good news for minor party and independent candidates for statewide office in 2016. If there were no vacancies, then the 2016 petition requirement would be based on turnout in the 2014 election, which will be far higher. In 2005, there were no statewide judicial vacancies, so the number of signatures in 2006 was based on the 2004 turnout. That is why, in 2006, the requirement was 67,070. If there had been statewide judicial vacancies in 2005, the 2006 requirement would probably have been 20,000 or so.
A reasonable guess for the 2016 requirement is 25,000 signatures. However, if the legislature eases the requirement in 2015, it may be less. It seems probable that one of the two pending ballot access cases in Pennsylvania, or both of them, will win, in time to improve ballot access for 2016.
On October 30, Norris Dryer, Green Party nominee for U.S. House, 2nd district, in Knoxville, Tennessee, died. See this obituary.
As reported earlier, the Libertarian Party nominee for U.S. Senate in Iowa, Douglas Butzier, also died this month.
The Statesman-Journal, Salem’s daily newspaper, here recommends that voters defeat Measure 90, the top-two proposal.