U.S. District Court Denies Reconsideration in Arizona Voter Registration Lawsuit

Posted on by May 22, 2013
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On May 22, a U.S. District Court in Arizona denied reconsideration in Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 4:11cv-856. This is the case in which the Libertarian and Green Parties challenge the voter registration form, which has three checkboxes: Democratic, Republican, and “other”. The “other” box lets voters write-in the party, or independent status. Arizona has five qualified parties, all of which nominate by primary.

The parties will now appeal to the 9th circuit. The U.S. District Court Judge did re-write her opinion slightly, to delete a sentence which implied that the plaintiffs’ evidence was mistaken. Plaintiffs presented evidence, which is correct, that Arizona is the only state that lists only two parties on its voter registration form, and yet which regularly conducts primaries for other parties as well. In 2012, the state held primaries for the Americans Elect, Green, and Libertarian Parties.

Analysis of British Columbia Vote Last Week Suggests Green Party Did Not “Spoil” the Election

Posted on by May 22, 2013
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Last week, British Columbia held an election for its provincial legislature. The two major parties in British Columbia elections are the New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party. Before the election, most observers expected the New Democratic Party to win a majority in the legislature. However, instead, the Liberal Party won. Because the Green Party had candidates in 61 of the 85 districts, and because the New Democratic Party is considered to be “left” of the Liberal Party, some commentators wrote that the Green Party had “spoiled” the election for the New Democratic Party.

Canada, like the United States, does not have proportional representation and does not use ranked-choice voting.

Chad Skelton, writing for the Vancouver Sun, here reports his research into whether Green Party voters would have supported the New Democratic Party over the Liberal Party, if the Green Party had not been in the race. To his surprise, he found that the Green Party campaigns did not cause the defeat of the New Democratic Party.

Special Pennsylvania Legislative Election Results

Posted on by May 22, 2013
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On May 21, Pennsylvania held a special election to fill the vacant State House seat, 95th district. The results: Democrat Kevin Schreiber 53.22%; Republican Bryan Tate 38.75%; Green Party nominee Bill Swartz 8.02%.

When this seat had last been up, in November 2012, the results had been: Democratic 83.04%; Libertarian 16.96%. The district is entirely in York County.

Pennsylvania also held a special election to fill the vacant State House seat, 42nd district. The results: Democrat Dan Miller 57.07%; Republican Dan Remely 37.47%; Libertarian George Brown 5.46%.

When this seat had last been up, in November 2012, the only candidate on the ballot was a Democrat.

Minnesota Legislature Adjourns, Does Not Move Primary from August to June

Posted on by May 22, 2013
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On May 20, late in the night, the Minnesota legislature adjourned for the year. The legislature did not pass the Senate version of the omnibus election law bill. That bill, SF 677, would have moved the primary from August to June, and automatically would have created earlier petition deadlines for a newly-qualifying party, and also an earlier petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates.

The legislature did pass the House version of the omnibus election law bill, HF 894, but that bill does not change primary dates or any petition deadlines. That bill expands the types of voters who can use absentee voting, but does not provide for early voting.

Other bills that failed to pass include bills to provide that if a presidential elector votes in the electoral college differently than had been expected, he or she is deemed to have resigned, and would be replaced by someone chosen by the other electors. Those bills were HF 526 and SF 464. Also, the bills to let non-charter cities use ranked-choice voting, SF 335 and HF 367, failed to pass. The National Popular Vote Plan bills also did not pass.