On October 9, the city of Los Angeles named Luis J. Rodriguez poet laureate for the city. See this story.

No one is allowed to vote for Rodriguez for California Governor next month, because he did not place first or second in June. The Green Party has never polled as much as 1,000,000 votes for the offices at the top of the ballot in a mid-term year. It is likely that if Rodriguez were on the California November ballot, the Green Party would exceed 1,000,000 votes for the top offices for the first time in a mid-term year. Howie Hawkins is likely to receive 500,000 votes for Governor of New York, and Anita Rios is likely to receive 200,000 for Governor of Ohio. This year the Green Party also has candidates on the ballot for the top office in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Michigan, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. The total would probably reach 1,000,000 if Rodriguez were on the California ballot.

The best showing in the Green Party’s history, for the top office in mid-term years, was in 2006, when the national total was 955,866.

The Bangor Daily News has this op-ed by Maine State Representative Diane Russell. She advocates ranked-choice voting for Maine. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.

Dan Walters, veteran politics and government columnist for the Sacramento Bee, predicts a record low turnout for a general election in California next month. He writes, “A couple of dozen legislative and congressional races pitting members of the same party against one another may also dampen turnout.”

He did not say anything about the effect on turnout of a system that has left California as one of only six states this year with only Democrats and Republicans on the ballot for the top office on the ballot, but that probably is another factor in lowering turnout. Thanks to AroundtheCapital for the link.