By coincidence, both Gary Johnson and Virgil Goode have been campaigning in North Carolina during the past few days, and even though they didn’t cross paths, they each have said they are willing to debate the other one. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for this news.
On July 23, U.S. District Court Judge William Zloch of Florida heard arguments in LaCasa and Mazzilli v Townsley, 12-cv-22432, southern district. This is the case filed by some Florida voters who aren’t Democrats but who want to vote in the Democratic primary for Miami-Dade State Attorney, a partisan race. They argue that they should be allowed to vote in the Democratic primary because the only candidates who filed to have their names on any primary or general election ballot are two Democrats. They argue that they won’t have had any voice in the selection unless they can vote in the Democratic primary for that office.
Florida law would let non-Democrats vote in that primary, if indeed there were only Democrats running. But there are two write-in candidates running in November for that office, so the open primary law doesn’t apply to this race (the law only applies when the only candidates, of any kind, are from the same party; one of the write-ins is a Republican). The voters argue that the write-in candidates have no real campaign, and that they probably only filed in order to keep this particular primary closed. Judge Zloch asked the attorney for the voters if write-in candidates can theoretically win, and the reluctant response was that, yes, in theory write-in candidates can win. The judge said he would rule on July 24, or early on July 25.
On July 23, Illinois election officials removed Virgil Goode (Constitution Party), Stewart Alexander (Socialist Party), Rocky Anderson (Justice Party), and Michael Hawkins (Together Enhancing America Party) from the November 2012 ballot.
The man who had challenged their petitions had decided to withdraw his challenges to their petitions. But the hearing officer refused to let him speak, so he wasn’t able to withdraw the challenges.
According to this article, Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Maryland) is about to introduce a bill to provide that every adult U.S. citizen is entitled to a voucher for $50, that could be used by that individual to contribute to a congressional candidate or a political party. The bill has other features as well. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Democracy for the link.
Ralph Nader recently filed this brief in support of his claim against the Maine Democratic Party, and the national Democratic Party, over its actions to prevent voters from voting for him in the 2004 presidential election. The case is pending in local state court in Washington County, Maine. The brief is interesting because it gives some specific details of some of the actions taken by the Democratic Party.
