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.
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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a new nominee on the November ballot for Delegate to the House, 35th district, to replace its earlier nominee who had withdrawn in August.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 All the justices feel that the West Virginia law, allowing a party to replace a nominee who had withdrawn, was already very clear.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.
According to this story, Galveston County is reprinting 5,000 ballots because they erroneously failed to give an independent candidate for County Judge any partisan label on the ballot. The faulty ballots list the independent candidate but give him no label whatsoever. Thanks to Electionline for the link.
Eric Ostermeier, whose blog Smart Politics frequently compiles historic facts about elections, now lists all independent U.S. Senators in U.S. history. He points out that there have never been more than two independents in the U.S. Senate at any one time, but that if Greg Orman wins in Kansas next month, there will be three. See here.
Ostermeier’s list doesn’t differentiate between Senators who were elected as independents, versus Senators who became independents while they were in office but were never elected as independents. Among those on his list, Wayne Morse of Oregon, Bob Smith of New Hampshire, and Jim Jeffords of Vermont never were elected as independents.
Ostermeier differentiates between independent Senators, and Senators who were members of minor parties. His inclusion of Dean Barkley as an independent seems questionable. Barkley, appointed to the U.S. Senate by Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, was a leader of the Independence Party and one of its founders. Ostermeier recognizes this to a certain degree, but he still chooses to list Barkley as an independent because a U.S. Senate record lists him that way.