The California State Court of Appeals will hear Rubin v Bowen on January 15 at 9 a.m. in San Francisco. This is the case in which the Libertarian, Green, and Peace & Freedom Parties charge that the California top-two system violates the voting rights of voters who wish to vote for minor party candidates in November general elections.

Mark Frohnmayer, who worked hard for Oregon’s top-two ballot measure earlier this year, posted this statement on November 5, the date after the election. Significantly, the statement says, “Choice should be maximized in the November election, when the most voters participate.”

This is a hopeful sign. The proponents of top-two are generally individuals who truly want a better election system, and the lack of dialogue between top-two supporters and top-two opponents has been unfortunate.

Gavin Roselles, a write-in candidate for Sheriff of Powell County Sheriff in the November 4 election, received 1,142 write-in votes. However, election officials won’t credit him with 238 votes in which the voter only wrote the candidate’s surname on the ballot. In addition, Roselles was not credited with an unknown number of other ballots, in which the voter wrote him in but didn’t blacken the circle next to the write-in line.

Because the incumbent, the only candidate whose name was printed on the ballot, received 994 votes, the incumbent was declared the victor, despite the obvious intent of the majority to elect Roselles. See this story.

The Montana Secretary of State’s interpretation of Bush v Gore is deeply flawed. Bush v Gore said, “Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the state may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person’s vote over that of another.” Yet Montana has not treated all voters equally in this instance. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link.