The 18th U.S. House district in Illinois will soon be vacant. See this story, which says that a special election must be held in July, if not before. Under a 2013 U.S. District Court decision, Jones v McGuffage, Illinois cannot require independent candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties, to complete a petition of 5% of the last vote cast in special U.S. House elections.
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 16, the Texas House Elections Committee heard testimony on HB 464, the bill to require candidates nominated by minor party convention to pay filing fees. Currently, only candidates running in a partisan primary pay filing fees in Texas.
Mark Miller, from the Libertarian Party, testified against the bill. Here is a link to his testimony, at his web page. Also, Kat Swift, from the Green Party, testified against the bill. The committee meeting had many bills and this bill was one of the last to be heard. Some members of the committee left early, or drifted in and out of the hearing room while the testimony was being heard. In Texas, as in most states, committee members do not vote on a bill immediately after hearing testimony. Any committee vote on the bill will be in the future. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
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.
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Representative John Conyers (D-Mi.) have introduced a bill to permit ex-felons to vote in federal elections. Here is a link to the text of the bill, which does not yet have a bill number. The bill’s preamble contains a great deal of factual information about the status of ex-felons, relative to voting.
