News Story About Rob Sobhani, Independent U.S. Senate Candidate in Maryland who has Spent $4,600,000 on His Campaign So Far

Southern Maryland Online has this interesting story about Rob Sobhani, who is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland. He has already spent $4,600,000 on his campaign, and is in second place in the polls, ahead of the Republican nominee but behind incumbent Senator Benjamin Cardin, a Democrat.

Sobhani has roots in Iran. The fourth candidate in the race, Libertarian nominee, Dean Ahmad, has Palestinian roots. Southern Maryland Online is an on-line newspaper that serves Charles, Calvert, and St. Marys Counties.

Sobhani will probably set a new record for a U.S. Senate candidate in Maryland who is not a major party nominee. The highest share of the vote in Maryland history for anyone running for U.S. Senate, who is not a major party nominee, is 13.1%. That was obtained in 1968 by George Mahoney, an independent who was opposed to civil rights laws concerning discrimination in housing.

Washington Post’s Melinda Henneberger Explores the Meaning of Voting for a Minor Party or Independent Presidential Candidate

Melinda Henneberger is a political writer for the Washington Post. In this October 20 column, she explores the meaning of voting for a presidential candidate whose ideas may reflect the voter’s own ideas, in the context of a close presidential election. Henneberger gives clues that she actually agrees with Jill Stein, but questions whether it is rational to vote for a candidate who can’t win.

It is maddening that Henneberger cannot bring herself to talk about alternative voting systems, such as proportional representation, instant-runoff voting, or approval voting. Of course proportional representation cannot apply to an office that elects a single winner, and any mention of proportional representation in the context of an election for the nation’s chief executive would also need to explore parliamentary systems.

But it is a welcome sign that the Post is mentioning minor party presidential candidates this year as much as it has.

No California Newspaper Has Yet Mentioned Court Decision of Three Days Ago, Invalidating Ballot Access Law for Newly-Qualifying Parties

It has now been three days since a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles invalidated California’s law on how a party gets on the ballot, and the only news sources that have reported the decision are Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog, and Ballot Access News, and the web page of the ACLU of Southern California. The ACLU, which won this case, put out a press release, but it seems to have been ignored by California’s daily newspapers.

Lane County, Oregon, Voters Will Choose a Countywide Circuit Judge via Write-in Votes

Lane County, Oregon, is the 4th most populous county in Oregon, and contains Eugene. Lane County voters will elect a circuit court judge by write-in vote in the upcoming election. See this story. The incumbent judge failed to qualify for the ballot because of a paperwork error.

Four individuals have announced that they are running for the seat. Oregon no longer has a procedure by which individuals file as declared write-in candidates. Instead, write-in votes are not counted in most elections, except that the total number of write-ins for all candidates is tallied, with no breakdown for how many votes any particular candidate received. But, section 254.500(b) says that when no candidate qualifies to have his or her name printed on the ballot, a tally must be made for each candidate who receives as much as one write-in vote.

In Georgia, 77% of State Legislative Races Have Only One Candidate on the Ballot

This year, in Georgia, 77% of the state legislative races have only one candidate on the ballot. Even for Georgia, which almost always has one-candidate elections in over half the state legislative races, this is shocking.

Georgia requires a petition signed by 5% of the number of registered voters to place anyone on the ballot for state legislature (or for U.S. House, or for local partisan office), except that the nominees of parties that polled 20% of the vote in the last election for President or Governor need not petition. Georgia also requires a filing fee of 3% of the office’s annual salary, even for candidates who are required to petition. This fee is the second highest filing fee in the nation for non-presidential office.

Legislation to ameliorate these ballot access laws has been repeatedly defeated in the Georgia legislature during the last 40 years. A measure to reduce the petition was defeated in 2012. It would have reduced the petition to 5% of the last presidential vote.

That a fairly populous state like Georgia can hold one-candidate elections in over three-fourths of the legislative districts is, sadly, an indictment of the U.S. Supreme Court, which has repeatedly refused to hear challenges to these laws. It is also an indictment of civic leadership in the state, and, ultimately, an indictment of the people of Georgia, for seeming not to notice or care that their own right to vote for such an important office as state legislator is so curtailed.