California Governor Jerry Brown has until the end of Sunday, October 11, to decide whether to sign or veto two election law bills. So far he hasn’t acted on either one.
AB 477 puts the Green Party’s internal rules into the election code. AB 1461 is a major bill that provides all adult citizens known to exist will automatically be registered, although they will be contacted and asked if they wish to opt out. If they don’t respond, they will be registered.
Gallup, one of the oldest polling companies in the U.S., will not do any polling for presidential primaries this year. And Gallup may not poll for the general election either. See this story.
On October 5, the New Jersey Republican Party filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State, so as to be able to replace one of its nominees for Assembly, 38th district. New Jersey elects all its legislators on November 3, 2015. See this story. The party will choose a replacement for the candidate who dropped out on October 8. But unless it wins the lawsuit, that candidate won’t be on the ballot. New Jersey permits substitution but the deadline had already passed.
The Maine initiative to use instant runoff voting for federal and state office will be submitted this month. Proponents have collected approximately 75,000 signatures. Assuming they have enough, the measure will appear on the November 2016 ballot. See this story.
On Saturday, October 3, Saturday Night Live carried a skit in which Hillary Clinton appeared as a bartender named “Val”. She served an actress who was playing Hillary Clinton. The skit lasted for 3 minutes and 12 seconds.
Now, NBC has notified its stations who carry Saturday Night Live that they should notify the FCC that they gave Clinton free air time. The Equal Time rule still applies to broadcast television, but it has been interpreted over the years to exclude bona fide news events, including interviews.
It is somewhat plausible that other candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination might now ask for an equal amount of time on the stations that carried the skit. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this link. Equal time does not mean that the candidates seeking free air time necessarily need to be on Saturday Night Live. It just means they may be entitled to some free time.
