The Constitution Party has re-filed as a “Political Body” in California. This means elections officials will continue to tally how many registered voters it has. Other political bodies currently are Common Sense, Forward, Neutral, and Ring of Truth. The next tally will be in a few weeks. Parties need approximately 75,000 registered members to become qualified. Thanks to Mike Feinstein for this news.
On January 7, the North Carolina State Supreme Court issued an order in Griffin v North Carolina State Board of Elections, 320P24. It forbids the Board of Elections from certifying the vote for State Supreme Court Justice, a partisan office. While the election for that seat temporarily remains undecided, the Republican nominee, Jefferson Griffin, who filed the lawsuit, will try to persuade the court that approximately 60,000 voters who cast a ballot did not prove that they were eligible to vote.
If the Board had certified the election, the results would have shown a narrow win for the Democratic nominee, Alison Riggs.
The approximately 60,000 voters whose votes are being challenged are mostly individuals for whom the registration records don’t list the last four digits of that individual’s Social Security Number, or a Drivers License number.
It is possible the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th circuit, will upend this outcome. See this news story. It is behind a pay wall but if one answers a question, one can read the article.
Justin Trudeau announce on January 7 that he will step down as Prime Minister of Canada. He said in that announcement that his biggest regret was not presiding over electoral reform for Canadian federal elections, such as Ranked Choice Voting of Proportional Representation.
The Liberal Party will choose a new leader, and that individual will be the new Prime Minister. There will be a general election sometime in 2025. See this story.
On January 6, Jim Walden, a candidate for Mayor of New York city, who intends to run this year, filed a federal lawsuit against the 2022 law that bans “Independence” from being part of the name of any political party. Walden v Kosinski, e.d., 1:25cv-72. Here is the Complaint.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon, a Bush Sr. appointee. Thanks to Frank Morano for the news.
Earlier BAN had a post saying that Joseph Bishop-Henchman had obtained a tally of the write-in votes for president in the District of Columbia, in the November 5, 2024 election for president. This post explains how he obtained the information. He used the District’s Freedom of Information Act to obtain a picture of every ballot for which the write-in bubble had been filled in.
The reference books that report the official, final presidential vote for any election will probably refuse to include his findings, because they are not “official” figures, i.e., they weren’t released by the D.C. Board of Elections itself. The three primary reference books will be published by (1) the Federal Election Commission; (2) America Votes, a private firm that publishes election returns; (3) the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. None of the three books have been published yet.
It is possible that Bishop-Henchman or any other activist who cares about this can persuade the City Council (which writes election laws for D.C.) to amend the code and require a tally for the declared presidential write-in candidates.
