The CNN presidential debate set for September 16 will include eleven candidates, not ten. They are the same ten candidates who were in the August Fox News debate, plus Carly Fiorina.
The secondary debate, set for two hours earlier, will only include five candidates. See this story.
On September 9, a Pennsylvania state trial court ruled in favor of Ray Tonkin, who is running for re-election as District Attorney of Pike County. Tonkin is a registered Republican. He lost the race for the Republican nomination in this year’s primary, but he won the Democratic primary on write-in votes at the primary.
Some challengers then tried to remove him from the general election ballot on the grounds that he didn’t pay the $100 filing fee. He had already paid one filing fee when he filed in the Republican primary, but the challengers said that fee can’t cover his Democratic primary win. However, the challengers lost in court. See this story.
On September 9, the Seventh Circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court that Indiana cannot provide for limited nominations in partisan judicial races. The case is Common Cause Indiana v Individual Members of the Indiana Election Commission, 14-3300. Here is the 32-page opinion.
Indiana’s law only applies to Marion County, which is identical to the city of Indianapolis. The law says no party may run candidates for more than half the seats for Superior Court Judge. Some years 16 seats are up; in those years no party may run more than 8 nominees. Other years, 20 seats are up; in those years no party may run more than 10 nominees. The purpose of the law is to prevent one party from winning all the races.
The decision is on shaky grounds, because elsewhere around the nation, limited voting and limited nominations have been upheld. The decision mentions decisions upholding limited voting and/or nominations in New York, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia. The decisions from Connecticut and the District of Columbia were summarily affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Seventh Circuit declines to follow those precedents on the grounds that judicial elections are different than elections for other office. The cases from New York, Connecticut, and D.C. involved city council and school board elections. The decision is by U.S. District Court Judge Theresa Springmann, a Bush Jr. appointee sitting temporarily on the Seventh Circuit for this case. The decision is co-signed by Judge Michael S. Kanne, a Reagan appointee; and Ilana D. Rovner, a Bush Sr. appointee.
The decision says the Indianapolis limited nomination law restricts the right of voters to a choice of whom to vote for. One flaw in that argument is that, in theory, minor party and independent candidates are also permitted to run, so if there were robust independent candidates or minor party candidacies, the voters would still have a meaningful choice in the general election. But, the decision says there haven’t been any such candidates since 2000 and 2002, when there were some Libertarian nominees. Obviously when there are only Democratic and Republican nominees on the general election ballot, and each of those parties can only run for half the seats (and assuming there are no declared write-in candidates), the voters have no choice whatsoever; the outcome is predetermined. Thanks to How Appealing for the news of this decision.
This September 10 news article finds that North Carolina legislators are still undecided about whether to hold the primary for office other than president in March or May. The article is lengthy and has quotes from many legislators.
On September 9, U.S. District Court Judge M. Hannah Lauck denied injunctive relief to the Powhatan County Republican Committee, in its lawsuit to force the state to print party labels on the general election ballot for county office. The basis for the denial of relief is that the party filed its lawsuit too late. The constitutionality of the Virginia law, barring party labels for county office, will be decided later.
The case is Robert G. Marcellus v Virginia State Board of Elections, e.d., 3:15cv-481. Virginia law provides that parties nominate candidates for county office, but party labels can’t appear on the general election ballot for county office. Party labels do appear on the ballot for federal and state office. The judge said the party should have filed the lawsuit much earlier, if it wanted injunctive relief for the November 3, 2015 election. The lawsuit was filed on August 17. The party had nominated candidates for county office in May 2015, and the judge said the case should have been filed then. Thanks to Rob Richie for news about this lawsuit.
