On August 20, U.S. District Court Judge William P. Johnson refused to dismiss the lawsuit Fleming v Gutierrez, 13-cv-222. The case had been filed on March 7, 2013, against election officials in Sandoval County, New Mexico, complaining that there were far too few voting machines and voting locations in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The county election officials are Democrats, and Rio Rancho is a strongly Republican city. The case originally charged that several very close local elections might have turned out differently if Rio Rancho had had adequate voting procedures, because the lines at the polls were so long, and required waiting for as long as four hours, that some voters gave up and went home before voting.

This case is interesting because somewhat similar lawsuits have generally been filed by supporters of the Democratic Party, against Republican voting officials; this case is the reverse.

The county officials had argued the case should be dismissed, because the number of voting centers has been increased from four to seventeen for the 2014 election. But the decision says there is no guarantee the county won’t reduce the number in the future as soon as the lawsuit is dismissed, so the case remains open, probably for some sort of consent decree that will guarantee the larger number of voting centers in the future. See this story about the case.

On August 23, nMessage and the Maryland Republican Party released this gubernatorial poll: Democrat Anthony Brown 42%; Republican Larry Hogan, Jr., 41%; Libertarian Shawn Quinn 3%, undecided 14%.

When undecided respondents are asked if they lean to any particular candidate, the results are: Democratic 45%, Republican 42%; Libertarian 4%; undecided 9%. Here is a Baltimore Sun story about Quinn.

There are only three candidates on the ballot. The Green Party is ballot-qualified but chose not to run anyone for Governor. If Quinn gets at least 1%, the Libertarian Party will remain on the ballot for the 2016 election. No minor party nominee for Maryland Governor has polled as much as 1% since 1970, when the American Party received 1.97%. The only offices that count for retention are President and Governor. The Green Party is already circulating its 2016 party petition in Maryland. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.

Joe Visconti, an independent candidate for Governor of Connecticut, has qualified for the ballot. See this story, which says that the Secretary of State has determined that he has at least 7,500 valid signatures. In 2008 he was the Republican nominee for U.S. House in the First District. This year, his ballot label will be “petitioning candidate”, which is Connecticut’s ballot label for independent candidates. Even if he gets over 1% of the vote, his vote will not establish a party that is ballot-qualified for future gubernatorial races.

Visconti is the only statewide candidate who has qualified by petition in Connecticut so far this year. The only other statewide candidate who even tried is Jonathan Pelto, also running for Governor, but his petition is likely to fall short. Thanks to Timothy McKee for this news.