On September 16, Purple Strategies released a Virginia 2013 gubernatorial poll. The poll was conducted by phone and internet. For phone users, the respondents did not receive a phone call from a human researcher, but from an interactive electronic system of communication. The respondent was only offered the choice of the Democratic nominee, the Republican nominee, or “not sure.” It was impossible for the respondent to express any choice beyond those three. The same was true for the respondents who answered the poll via computer.

The results: Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe 43%, Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli 38%, “not sure” 19%. The “not sure” category is unusually high for a high-profile race this close to the election, so that probably indirectly suggests a relatively large percentage for Rob Sarvis, the third choice on the ballot. One would think polling companies would want to know how much support Sarvis is receiving. If he did receive 10%, the Libertarian Party would become a ballot-qualified party in Virginia for the first time, and would be automatically on the ballot in 2014 as well as 2015 and 2016. That would be the first time Virginia had had a ballot-qualified third party since the period 1994-1997, something that ought to be interesting to general readers who care about politics and government.

On September 16, independent candidate James Hall filed a lawsuit against Alabama, seeking a reduction in the number of signatures needed for petitioning candidates in the upcoming special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, First District. The lawsuit is Hall v Bennett, 2:13-663, middle district of Alabama. See this story.

Alabama law does not prevent independent candidates from starting to petition as early as they wish, so normally, an independent candidate may have up to two years to collect the needed signatures. However, in this special election, the date of the election was not announced until July 29. Alabama petitions normally must display the date of the election, and until the end of July, no one knew what the date of the election would be. The petition is due September 24. The state did not reduce the number of signatures to take into account that the time period is so much shorter for this election than in a normal election. The election will be on December 17.

The Illinois Green Party won a similar lawsuit earlier this year. A federal court in Illinois reduced the number of signatures required for the special election to fill the vacant 2nd district from 15,682 signatures to 3,444 signatures, because the petitioning time had been shortened. Jones v McGuffage, 921 F.Supp.2d 888. Similar lawsuits were won in Georgia in 2002 and 1981, and in Florida in 1982 and 1989, and Maryland in 1981. The Alabama petition requirement for the upcoming election is 5,938 valid signatures (3% of the last vote cast for Governor inside that district).

The U.S. Supreme Court returns from its summer recess on September 30, when it holds a conference to decide whether to hear certain cases. Probably the Court will then announce on October 1 whether it is hearing any particular cases, and on October 7 it will release further orders from the September 30 conference and also start its fall argument schedule.

One of the cases on the September 30 conference is Corsi v Ohio Election Commission, 12-1442. The plaintiff, Edmund Corsi, has a blog about local politics in Geauga County, Ohio. In 2010 the Ohio Election Commission heard a complaint against him, that he had not registered as a PAC. To register as a PAC requires designation of a treasurer and periodic campaign finance reports. The Commission believed Corsi should become a PAC because his web page sometimes commented on whether his readers should vote for or against particular candidates. The Commission also believed Corsi’s activity was not merely the activity of an individual, because he sometimes held meetings in which participants discussed local politics.

The Ohio State Appeals Court agreed with the Ohio Election Commission that Corsi must register as a PAC. The Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear Corsi’s appeal. Now he is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case. Here is his cert petition. Corsi is a conservative who frequently criticizes local Republican office-holders. Here is Corsi’s webpage, Geauga Constitutional Council.