Here is a copy of an executive order issued by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. It allows residents of New York city, and four particular nearby suburban counties, to vote in any precinct. However, the voter will be better off finding a precinct near his or her home, because the ballots for such displaced voters can only include offices for which that voter would have been eligible to vote, if the voter had voted in the home precinct. Thanks to Kimberly Wilder for this news.
The Billings Gazette has this story, that almost 2/3rds of Wyoming state legislative races have only one person running. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link. Ironically, the Billings Gazette is a Montana newspaper, not a Wyoming newspaper.
On November 5, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily reversed both the 4th circuit, and a U.S. District Court in South Carolina, and ruled that Steve Lefemine is entitled to collect attorneys’ fees from the county government of Greenwood County, South Carolina. Here is the 4-page decision in Lefemine v Wideman, 12-168. In 2008, Lefemine had filed a lawsuit, alleging that his freedom of speech was being violated because the sheriff of Greenwood County had told him that he could not demonstrate on public sidewalks with signs showing pictures of aborted fetuses. He won the case, and the U.S. District Court issued declaratory relief, preventing him from being arrested in the future. But the U.S. District Court refused to award attorneys fees to Lefemine.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th circuit, also refused to award attorneys fees to Lefemine, but on November 5, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower courts on the attorneys fees matter and said the county must pay attorneys’ fees to Lefemine, under the federal law passed in 1976 that permits plaintiffs to recover attorneys’ fees from governments, when governments violate Civil Rights, including First Amendment rights.
Lefemine was a Constitution Party nominee for Congress or state legislature in 2000, 2001 (a special election), 2002, and 2004. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
The Montgomery, Alabama Advertiser has this interesting story about how Chilton County uses cumulative voting. The reason it exists in Chilton County is to enable blacks, who are only 10% of the population, to elect one of their own to countywide partisan office. However, everything about cumulative voting would also enable minor party members to have a chance to elect one of their own as well.
Chilton County is in the geographical center of Alabama, between Montgomery and Birmingham. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
