On August 11, the California Senate passed AB 2766, so the bill is through the legislature. It repeals the law that requires candidates for County Central Committee (from the Democratic, Republican, and American Independent Parties) to take a loyalty oath. The bill passed the Senate 23-12. Most Republican Senators voted “no”. The oath was declared unconstitutional in state court last year.
On August 12, U.S. District Court Judge David B. Hornby heard arguments in Woodhouse v Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, 1:14-266. This is the case that challenges Maine campaign finance limits, which let contributors give twice as much money to a candidate who runs in a partisan primary and then a general election, as to an independent candidate or the nominee of an unqualified party.
This story describes the oral argument. It appears that the hearing went well for the plaintiffs, who want to give more than is allowed to the independent candidate for Governor.
James Carr, a Libertarian running for U.S. House in Virginia’s 7th district, is attempting to comply with the Virginia State Board of Elections decision that if he wants to be on the ballot in the special election, he must collect 1,000 valid signatures in just ten days. See this story. Ironically, the Board requires the signatures by the end of this week, even though the Republican Party (which need not submit any petition) hasn’t even chosen its nominee yet in the special election.
In case Carr fails to get the needed signatures, he is free to sue for either more time or fewer signatures, under a Fourth Circuit precedent, Mathers v Morris, which says that in special congressional elections with limited petitioning periods, the requirement must be eased. Virginia is in the Fourth Circuit. Mathers v Morris was a Maryland case won by the Libertarian Party in 1981.
The South Jersey Times has this story about the drawing for ballot placement in Gloucester County, drawing attention to the fact that Democratic and Republican Party nominees always get the top spots on the ballot and their own party column, whereas all other candidates are put helter-skelter into a “Nomination by Petition” column (although a handful of counties don’t use party columns).
New Jersey has the most discriminatory ballots in the nation, but there has never before been so much New Jersey press attention to the problem.
The Albuquerque Journal has this editorial in support of semi-closed primaries. Near the end, the editorial mentions top-two primaries (although it doesn’t use that term) but says open primaries are superior to top-two primaries.
