The Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives has just published “Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 2014”.  See it here

The charts in the back show the national vote for US House by party, and .for US Senate by party.  The Clerk has been publishing a similar book for each congressional election starting in 1920.

The 2014 book does a better job than the books published for earlier elections.  In the recent past, the charts in the back discriminated against minor parties and for major parties.  Past copies of the book listed all Democratic nominees in the “Democratic” column in the charts, whether the Democratic Party had a different name on the ballot in a particular state or not.  In Minnesota, Democrats are on the general election ballot as “Democratic-Farmer-Labor.”  In North Dakota, Democrats are on as “Democratic-Non-Partisan.”  But the chart showing the national Democratic vote always included Democratic nominees from those two states.

However, past books did not put Green Party nominees in the “Green” column in the charts, if the Green Party had a different name in a particular state or jurisdiction.  Past books put the Green nominees in Maine, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Oregon, and the District of Columbia, in the “other parties” column instead of the “Green” column, because the name of the Green Party in those five places is different than just “Green.”

On October 6, 2014, the Green Party informed the Clerk of the U.S. House that its name in D.C. is “Statehood Green”; in Maine, “Green Independent”; in Massachusetts, “Green-Rainbow”; in Oregon, “Pacific Green”; and in West Virginia, “Mountain Party.”  Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi helped see that the Clerk was cognizant of this letter, and the Clerk then prepared the 2014 book listing all the Green Party votes in the Green Party column.  Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link to the book.

On March 18, CNN/ORC released a poll which includes questions about how voters would vote for President in November 2016.  Scroll down to question 22.  Assuming Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, she beats most potential Republican nominees by at least 12 points, and in many cases 15 points.  Thanks to Political Wire for the link.

Alabama State Senator Quinton Ross (D-Montgomery) has introduced SB 240.  It moves the primary for president and all other office, during presidential election years, from the 2nd Tuesday in March to the 1st Tuesday in March.  Even though the bill is re-enacting the law that says runoff primaries are six weeks after the first primary, the bill does not amend that part of the law.  Yet the Eleventh Circuit has already ruled that Alabama is violating federal law by having the primary and the runoff primary so close together.  Perhaps this means that Alabama is planning to ask the U. S. Supreme Court to overturn the Eleventh Circuit decision, United States v State of Alabama.

UPDATE:  the Secretary of State’s office says a bill will be introduced to move the date of the runoff primary.  In the meantime, three Republican Representatives, Mike Ball, Steve McMillan, and David Standridge, have introduced HB 79.  It abolishes runoff primaries.

If SB 240 passes, the petition for newly-qualifying parties and non-presidential candidates will be even earlier than it already is.  Thanks to Josh Putnam for the news about SB 240.