Lucas Overby, a Libertarian who hoped to run in the upcoming Florida special election, U.S. House district 13, submitted 1,386 signatures in lieu of the filing fee, to meet a requirement of 1,172 valid signatures. His petition has now been checked and he is nineteen signatures short of the requirement. Therefore, he won’t be on the ballot unless he pays the $10,400 filing fee. See this story.
Los Angeles County election officials have contracted with IDEO, asking IDEO to design a new machine for permitting voters to cast their votes, and to count those votes. IDEO is a famous company with many design successes in the past, such as the computer mouse. See this story. Thanks to David Holtzman for the link.
Jacobin Magazine has this essay by Ari Paul, criticizing the Working Families Party of Syracuse for consistently refusing to support Howie Hawkins even when Hawkins runs strong campaigns that have a chance of winning. Howie Hawkins is one of the best-known Green Party activists in New York state, especially in his home region of Syracuse. In 2011, Hawkins would have almost certainly been elected to the Syracuse City Council as a Green if the Working Families Party had either cross-endorsed him or stayed out of that race.
Jacobin Magazine is a print quarterly, founded in 2010. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the link.
On Friday evening, November 15, Kshama Sawant’s opponent, incumbent Seattle city councilman Richard Conlin, conceded to her. Sawant is the Socialist Alternative candidate in the citywide non-partisan race for city council. See this story.
Seth Masket, a political scientist who studies political parties, here discusses why the national Democratic and Republican Parties have so much trouble trying to enforce the type of presidential primary calendar they prefer. Masket concludes that depriving state parties of their delegates isn’t much of a threat. Ordinary delegates to Democratic and Republican Parties really have very little power.
