It is rare for a major newspaper to cover a minor party write-in candidate, but the Charlotte Observer has this story on David Waddell. He is the Constitution Party’s write-in candidate for U.S. Senate from North Carolina. Write-ins for him will be counted.
On August 6, the New Jersey Elections Department posted this turnout data for the June 3, 2014 primary. It shows that only 240,749 voters participated in the Democratic primary, and only 175,316 voters participated in the Republican primary.
New Jersey election law 19:5-1 says, “No political party which fails to poll at any primary election for a general election at least 10% of the votes cast in the State for members of the General Assembly at the next preceding general election, held for the election of all of the members of the General Assembly, shall be entitled to have a party column on the official ballot at the general election for which the primary election has been held.”
When one reads that sentence, it may be helpful to know that “next preceding” is a legal term that means “last” or “previous.”
In November 2013, when New Jersey last elected its legislature, there were 2,120,866 votes cast for Governor. The state doesn’t say how many voters turned out to vote in that election, but obviously a few voters turned out and left Governor blank, so the true number of “votes cast” in November 2013 must be slightly more than 2,120,866. If one takes “votes cast” to mean the number of voters who cast a ballot, then the Republican Party’s turnout in June 2014 is under 10%, and the Republican Party won’t be entitled to a party column heading in November 2014. But in the past, the New Jersey elections office has interpreted “votes cast” to mean the total number of votes cast, as opposed to the number of voters. Each legislative district elects two members, so under that interpretation, the “votes cast” in November 2013 for General Assembly was approximately 4,000,000. Under that interpretation, the Democratic Party also failed to qualify for a party column.
Both the D-R Party, and the Libertarian Party, are watching to see if New Jersey election officials really do deprive either or both the major parties of a party column heading in the November 2014 election. New Jersey and New Hampshire are the only states that have party column headings for qualified parties, but not unqualified parties. Even New York, which also has party column ballots, gives party column headings to unqualified parties. Most states don’t use party column ballots any longer.
Turkey holds its first presidential election on August 10. In the past, the voters elected a Parliament and the Parliament chose the President. See this wikipedia article. There are three candidates on the ballot. If no one gets 50%, there will be a run-off on August 24. The system is very similar to the type of presidential election France uses. The first round is an election, and polls suggest one candidate will win outright on August 10.
On August 6, legislative leaders from the New Mexico Democratic Party said they favor a bill in 2015 telling political parties that nominate by primary that they must let independents vote in those primaries. On August 7, the Republican Governor, Susana Martinez, said she also favors this idea. See this story. Given the Governor’s support, assuming she is re-elected this year, it seems very likely such a bill will pass.
These various public officials seem unaware that each of their parties already has the power to let independents vote in their primaries. In 1986 the U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut that if a party wants to invite independents to vote in its primary, that is a decision for the party, not the government. Nevertheless, it is obviously more orderly to have an election law statute setting forth how a party makes this decision, and also setting forth deadlines to make such a decision.
On August 7, Montana Democratic Party nominee John Walsh, running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, dropped out of the race. The Democratic Party will choose a new nominee by August 20. Walsh had been renominated in the June 3, 2014 primary. See this story.
If Montana had California’s top-two system, and if Walsh had placed first or second in the June 2014 primary, he would not be allowed to withdraw and he would be one of only two names on the November ballot.
