On October 27, a state court in Massachusetts refused to require the sponsors of that evening’s gubernatorial debate to include Evan Falchuk, nominee of the United Independent Party. See this story. UPDATE: this story has much more detail about why the judge ruled as she did.
Two Maine state legislators are sponsoring an initiative petition for ranked-choice voting for gubernatorial elections. The petition drive will begin immediately after the November 4, 2014 election. See this story. The first line of the story describes the move as a “referendum”, but it is obviously an initiative. A referendum asks voters if they wish to retain or repeal a new law that had just passed a legislature.
The state that has come closest to using ranked-choice voting for state office is Vermont, but even though the legislature passed such a measure a few years ago, the Governor vetoed it. Vermont doesn’t have the initiative process. Thanks to Rob Richie and Thomas MacMillan for the link.
Peter Franklin, a British politics analyst, here foresees rapid change in the British political party system. Already, the Scottish National Party has made great gains in the last few months, as has the Green Party. Better known is the rapid rise of UKIP, and the decline of the Liberal Democratic Party. Franklin sees further changes ahead.
The consequences of these dramatic changes make it likely that Britain will do as New Zealand did some years ago, and switch to proportional representation, or at least think about it seriously. If that happens, Canada may follow.
Evan Falchuk, United Independent Party nominee for Massachusetts Governor, has a court hearing on Monday, October 27, over whether he should be in the gubernatorial debate being held that same evening. See this story.
Early voting in the U.S. Virgin Islands started on October 21. Among the offices on the ballot are candidates for the territory’s unicameral legislature, which is called the Senate, and which has 15 members, all with two-year terms.
On October 24, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court ordered incumbent independent Senator Alicia “Chucky” Hansen removed from the ballot, even though early voting had already started. Bryan v Fawkes. The Court said her name should be covered up with stickers on all the ballots that hadn’t been distributed yet. See this newspaper story, which says election administrators have now halted early voting.
Hansen failed to file income tax returns for the years 2002, 2003, and 2004. She was convicted of three misdemeanors. The Virgin Islands charter says senators must not have been convicted of a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude. Hansen was elected to the Senate in 2010 and re-elected in 2012. She filed to run for a third term this year, but on August 28, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court ruled that failure to file income tax returns is a crime of moral turpitude, and that she is not eligible to run for re-election, even though the Virgin Islands charter says the legislature itself shall be the “sole” judge of the qualifications of its members.
On September 2, the Governor of the Virgin Islands pardoned her, but a Virgin Islands superior court (a territorial court, not a federal court) refused to order election officials to put her back on the ballot. Some of Hansen’s supporters then filed a federal lawsuit on September 7, Payne v Fawkes, 1:14cv-53, saying their voting rights were being violated by keeping Hansen off the ballot. On September 12, the federal court put her on the ballot. At first the superior court blocked that, and on October 6, the federal court said that it could not interfere with a territorial court order. But on October 10, the superior court agreed that she should be on the ballot. Ballots were then printed with her name on. But, surprisingly, on October 24, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court (which apparently really dislikes Senator Hansen) said she should not be on the ballot. Thanks to Derek T. Muller and his Excess of Democracy blog for this story. Professor Muller thinks Senator Hansen and her voters may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Virgin Islands Supreme Court.
