During August 2014, Mitt Romney filled out a new voter registration form in Holladay, Utah. He appears to have accidentally registered as an independent, by leaving the political party choice box empty. See this story, which has a picture of the form. He has since re-registered as a Republican. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
The Florida League of Women Voters has published a Voters Guide, and it contains questions for the Democratic and Republican nominees for Governor and Attorney General, and their responses. It does not mention the Libertarian nominees for those offices, even though the Libertarian nominee for Governor, Adrian Wyllie, has been recently polling at 10%, and even though the Libertarian nominee for Attorney General is one of only three candidates on the ballot (the gubernatorial race also has two independent candidates).
See this story, which is mainly about the failure of any Florida debate sponsors to invite Wyllie into any debate. The commentary is by Michelle Ertel, political analyst for Channel 13 News. The article contains a link to the League’s Voters Guide, which says, “all candidates have been given the same word limit”, an untrue statement since some candidates have been given a zero-word limit.
On October 1, a debate between the three nominee for State Auditor was televised. Watch it at this link. The three candidates are the nominees of the Democratic, Republican, and Green Parties. All three nominees are women.
On October 1, the West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Republican Party has a right to place a new nominee on the November ballot for Delegate to the House, 35th district, to replace its earlier nominee who had withdrawn in August. Here is the eleven-page opinion, with two concurrences. The case is State ex rel McDavid v Tennant.
As a result, all the ballots for that legislative district must be reprinted, at a cost of $25,000.
Seldom has any court issued such a blistering opinion, criticizing election officials. All the justices feel that the West Virginia law, allowing a party to replace a nominee who had withdrawn, was already very clear. The law does not give an unrestricted right to a candidate to withdraw, but the law says if a candidate is allowed to withdraw, the party of that nominee may replace him or her. In this case, election officials permitted the withdrawal but inexplicably wouldn’t allow a replacement. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
Four incumbent state legislators who are not Democratic or Republican nominees are virtually certain to be re-elected next month, because no opponent to them is on the ballot.
Rusty Kidd, Georgia’s only independent state legislator, has no opponents. He didn’t need to submit a petition signed by 5% of the registered voters because Georgia law exempts independent and minor party incumbents from petitioning.
In Vermont, three Progressive Party legislators running for re-election have no opponent. They are Christopher Pearson in the Chittenden 6-4 district, Mollie Burke in the Windham 2-2 district, and Sandy Haas in the Windsor-Rutland district. The Chittenden 6-4 district elects two members and the only two candidates are Pearson and a Democrat.
