According to this story, New York’s legislature is likely to soon pass a bill which will result in clearer ballots in that state. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
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On June 13, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, filed a petition to to run for re-election as an independent candidate. He also filed a petition to be in the Democratic primary for the same office. However, in the past, he has filed to run as a Democrat, and then he always wins the Democratic primary, and then withdraws his Democratic Party nomination. It is expected he will do the same thing this year.
Assuming Sanders is re-elected as an independent, it is somewhat likely two independent candidates will win U.S. Senate seats this year. The other likely independent winner is Angus King, running in Maine.
On May 15, Quartzsite, Arizona, held an election for Mayor and City Council. For Mayor, the results were: Ed Foster 401, Jerry Lukkasson 305. However, Foster is not being allowed to be sworn in, because he owes some money to the town government. See this story. In the meantime, Lukkasson, who had been the incumbent, is continuing to serve in office.
Quartzsite is in western Arizona and has a population of 4,000. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
The Phoenix city council has voted to sue the state of Arizona, to overturn the new law that tells all cities (even charter cities) that they must hold their city elections in even years. Phoenix has long held city elections in odd years. If the new law is not overturned, the normal terms of office for city council members will need to be either shortened, or lengthened. See this story.
On June 12, the Ohio Senate unanimously passed HB 509, which moves the deadline from August to September for large qualified parties to certify their presidential and vice-presidential nominees. Without this bill, the Ohio deadline, if enforced, would have made it impossible for both major parties to meet the deadline, because their national conventions are so late this year.
As noted before, this bill takes effect immediately, and only applies to the 2012 election, and only affects parties that polled at least 20% of the vote in the last election. Other qualified parties still have an August deadline. However, the practical effects of that discriminatory policy are nil, because all the small qualified parties in Ohio will have held their presidential conventions before August.
The part of the bill dealing with presidential deadlines does not amend the Election Code, probably because the bill only affects the 2012 election. Therefore, the contents of the bill will never be printed in the state’s statutes, and future historians will probably not even notice the bill ever existed.