According to this story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is registered “independent.” She is registered to vote in the District of Columbia. In recent decades, most U.S. Supreme Court Justices have been residents of northern Virginia, and Virginia does not have registration by party. But some justices have lived in Maryland, which does have registration by party. Thanks to HowAppealing for the link.
The Guam Election Commission has finished counting the November 6, 2012 presidential vote. Because Guam is on the early side of the International Date Line, voting finished there several hours ago. The results: Obama 23,067 (72.39%); Romney 8,443 (26.49%); Johnson 357 (1.12%).
In November 2008, the Guam presidential vote was: Obama 20,120 (62.35%); McCain 11,940 (37.00%); Bob Barr, Libertarian, 212 (.66%). Here is a picture of the 2012 Guam ballot. The presidential part of the ballot is on page two. Thanks to Walter Ziobro for the news, which is from the web page of a Guam television station, KUAM.
MSNBC and many other news sources have broadcast this You Tube, made by a Pennsylvania voter who intended to vote for President Obama. As his video shows, he repeatedly touched the Obama line on the touchscreen, but the machine always then lit up the Romney line. The voter, who says he is a programmer, then tested the machine by touching the Jill Stein line, which is directly below the Obama line. He thought that the machine might be making a generic mistake and always recording the vote for the line above the line that was touched. But, that theory wasn’t correct, because when he touched the Stein line, the machine lit up for Stein.
None of the news stories seem to indicate the name of the county in Pennsylvania. But news reports say the machine was then taken out of circulation. There have been similar complaints in other states by Republicans who say they experienced the same problem, that their attempt to vote for Romney registered a vote for Obama.
The Federal Election Commission recently ruled that separate campaign contribution limits apply to candidates who seek the nomination of two different parties, if the two nomination contests are held on different days. The issue arose in 2010 in Oregon, when Arthur Robinson sought both the Republican nomination for U.S. House, and the Independent Party nomination for the same U.S. House seat.
Campaign finance laws did not permit individuals to give more than $2,400 during primary season to any particular candidate. Robinson accepted contributions from some individuals of $2,400 to help in his fight to win the Republican nomination, and additional contributions from the same donors to help Robinson with the Independent Party nomination.
The FEC ruled that Robinson was entitled to receive such contributions, because the Republican primary was not simultaneous with the Independent Party private on-line primary. The Republican Party primary was on May 18, 2010, whereas the Independent Party private-on-line primary was conducted on July 30, 2010.
In 1994, the FEC had determined that a candidate for Congress in New York who was seeking both the Republican nomination and the Conservative nomination was not entitled to receive “double” contributions. The recent FEC opinion differentiates the New York situation from 1994, and the Oregon incident in 2010, on the grounds that in New York the two parties were nominating on the same day, whereas in Oregon the two primary elections are “different elections” because they were on different days. Here is the General Counsel’s recommendation in the Oregon case, made back on June 29, 2012. The FEC has accepted that recommendation. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for this news.
John P. Avlon, in this CNN article, says independent voters and centrist voters are significantly different groups of people. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
