This Zogby Poll, released December 9, seems to show that a larger proportion of independent voters support Donald Trump, compared to Republicans. The poll says 33% of Republicans support him, but 56% of independents support him.
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The American Independent Party, which is on the ballot in California but no other state, will let independent voters vote in its presidential primary in 2016. California law lets each qualified party decide whether or not to invite independents to vote in its presidential primary. The AIP also let independents vote in its presidential primary in 2004 and 2008, but did not do so in 2012.
The AIP will soon finalize the list of presidential primary candidates who will appear on the ballot. Already the party has decided to list Donald Trump and J. R. Myers. Myers is seeking the presidential nomination of the Constitution Party. California presidential primaries are on June 7.
As far as is known, no presidential candidate has ever appeared on the ballot of more than a single party’s presidential primary simultaneously. However, there is no law against it. If the AIP submits the name of Donald Trump to the California Secretary of State, and if Trump does not decline, he would then appear on the presidential primary ballot of both the Republican Party and the AIP.
In 2012, Roseanne Barr’s name was on the Green Party’s presidential primary, but not the Peace & Freedom Party’s primary ballot. However, in August, the Peace & Freedom Party nominated Barr and so her name appeared on the November ballot as the PFP nominee. In 2008, Alan Keyes’ name appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot, and in November he was listed as the American Independent Party presidential nominee in California. Also in 2008, Ralph Nader’s name appeared on the Green Party presidential primary ballot (which he won), and in November he was listed as the Peace & Freedom nominee.
In California’s 1996 presidential primaries, Ralph Nader was on the Green Party ballot, and he also filed as a write-in in the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom primaries. He received 6,599 votes in the Democratic primary, 1,441 in the Republican primary, 187 in the Peace & Freedom primary, and 115 in the Libertarian primary. His Green primary total was 22,649.
Donald Trump’s name appeared on the California Reform Party presidential primary in 2000. He won that primary with 15,311 votes, defeating George D. Weber (9,390), Robert Bowman (4,879) and John B. Anderson (3,158). The Reform Party national convention that year nominated Pat Buchanan.
Illinois Representative La Shawn Ford has introduced HB 4356 into the legislature. It provides a method for recall of the Mayor of Chicago. The legislature convenes on January 13, 2016. See this story.
Currently there are no procedures for recall of state officials in Illinois, except there is a procedure to recall a Governor, passed by the voters in 2010.
The bill is prompted by ongoing protests against the current Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who was re-elected in the spring of 2015. The bill would require the signatures of 15% of the last Mayoral vote, which at this time would be 88,610 valid signatures. If the voters voted in favor of a recall, only then would candidates to replace the Mayor be allowed to collect 12,500 signatures to run in a replacement special Mayoral election. And if no one gets 50%, there would be a runoff election. So the process would involve potentially three elections: (1) the recall election; (2) the replacement election; (3) a possible run-off.
The Star, Toronto’s daily newspaper, has this column about the future of electoral reform in Canada. If one reads to the end of the article, one learns that Proportional Representation is more likely to become policy than Instant-Runoff Voting. According to the story, that is because it is thought that Instant-Runoff Voting would help the Liberal Party, but Proportional Representation would help all the other parties. The article says that electoral reform is one of those policy areas where change is not consider legitimate unless there is a rough consensus in favor.
The Maine Libertarian Party will receive assistance from the national Libertarian Party to bring a lawsuit over the Secretary of State’s denial of party status.