The June 2013 issue of Z Magazine has this article, making the case that voters worried about climate change should support the Green Party. The piece, by Scott McLarty, includes advocacy of alternate voting systems and chides Democratic Party lawmakers for their disinterest in that subject.
On June 5, the House Administration Committee heard testimony on HR 2115, which was introduced by Congresswoman Candace Miller (R-Michigan) to make it less likely that individual voters will vote in two states in the same election. Two witnesses testified in favor, but the President of the League of Women Voters, Elisabeth MacNamara, testified against the bill as currently written.
The bill amends the National Motor Registration Act of 1993 (“motor voter”) to provide that when anyone applies for a driver’s license, the state driver’s license application form must ask the applicant to indicate whether he or she resides in another state or resided in another state prior to applying, and if so, to indicate which state will be the voter’s residence for purposes of voting. If the applicant does mention another state, the other state’s driver’s license office will be notified.
Here is the testimony of the League of Women Voters against the bill. The League supports the goal of the bill but feels the bill as written is flawed. Here is a news story about the hearing.
On June 5, the Arizona Senate unanimously passed HB 2518. The bill originally gave authority for cities and towns to use Approval Voting for their own elections. The Senate amended it to set up a joint legislative committee to study approval voting for local elections. Now the bill goes back to the House.
Approval voting lets voters vote for as many candidates as they wish, even when only one is to be elected.
On May 31, Paul S. Leon, Mayor of Ontario, California, changed his registration from “Republican” to “independent.” He has also filed for the special election to fill the vacant 52nd Assembly seat. That election will be on July 23. He will be facing eight other candidates, all of whom are Democrats or Republicans. See this story.
Leon ran in a special election earlier this year for State Senate, with the “Republican” label. He did not win.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Nader v Serody, 12-1294, on June 20. The issue is whether the people who challenged Ralph Nader’s 2004 Pennsylvania petition should be allowed to seize Nader’s funds from his Washington, D.C., bank account, to pay court costs. Although this has been litigated before, when it was litigated in Pennsylvania state courts, no one knew that the challengers had improperly and illegally used state resources to help with the challenge. This particular current case comes from the court of Washington, D.C.
