The Alameda County Green Party here suggests that California voters vote next month, but that they cast blank ballots for all the seven partisan statewide races. California is the only state this year in which voters cannot vote for any statewide partisan office unless they vote for a Democrat or a Republican.
The appeal is in Indybay.org (San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center), a well-read on-line news source.
On October 23, a Honolulu Advertiser Poll was released for the Hawaii gubernatorial race. The results: Democrat David Ige 47%; Republican Duke Aiona 35%; Independent Party nominee Mufi Hannemann 12%; Libertarian Jeff Davis 1%. See here for more detail.
On October 24, the Sixth Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court in Fair Elections Ohio v Husted, 14-4007. The issue was the ability to vote for persons jailed on or after the Friday before election day. Although such individuals would not have been convicted of any crime, in practice they cold not vote. The U.S. District Court had found this policy unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit did not discuss that, but said the plaintiffs lack standing. Here is the decision. The vote is 2-1. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On September 23, 2014, University of California political scientists published a 54-page study of “moderate” voters. Extensive survey research, covering 134 issues, reveals that “moderate” voters are typically people who have a mixture of “extreme left” and “extreme right” views. They end up looking like moderates because of the eclectic mixture of views from both sides of the spectrum.
Here is an article about the study. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On October 24, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, ruled that Gigi Bowman should be on the ballot as the Libertarian nominee for State Senate, 5th district, on Long Island. The case is Wilson v Bowman, 519828. Unqualified parties need 3,000 valid signatures to place a nominee on the ballot for State Senate in New York. The Libertarian petition had been challenged by Republican Party officials, and the lower court had removed Bowman from the ballot. The 4-page decision says that the challengers failed to serve Bowman in a timely fashion. Bowman also believes that she had enough valid signatures, but the court did not need to resolve that issue, since in any event the challenge to her petition is defective.
Bowman is the only Libertarian on the ballot for New York State Senate this year. The party also has two candidates for the Assembly.
