See this story, which explains that the Kansas legislature has not passed any bill drawing new congressional or legislative districts reflecting the 2010 census. A panel of three federal judges will determine the lines, but the hearing on May 29 is less than two weeks before the state’s deadline for primary candidates to file.
Businessman Alex Pires will attempt to qualify for the November Delaware ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate. See this story. He is well-known enough to have already appeared on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox network interview show.
No one has ever petitioned onto the Delaware ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate. Before 1978, Delaware didn’t have procedures for independent candidates for any office. In 1976 Joseph F. McInerney, an independent candidate, sued Delaware over this flaw in its election laws, and a U.S. District Court put him on the ballot.
Pires will need 6,080 valid signatures by July 15. Delaware traditionally invalidates petitions for tiny technicalities, such as a signature that doesn’t perfectly match the signature on the voter’s registration form. Assuming he gets on the ballot, he will be listed on the far-right hand portion of the ballot, in a spot that many voters may not even notice.
On May 28, Egyptian election officials released a final, official tally for the presidential election. See the results here at wikipedia (scroll down to the end of the article). The candidate who received the most votes ended up with 24.77%, less than the unofficial tally had reported. The second-place finisher ended up with 23.66%, also less than the unofficial tally had shown. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
According to this story in the Detroit News, the surprising failure of incumbent Congressman Thad McCotter to get on the Republican primary ballot may bring new candidates into the race. McCotter, an incumbent, is running for re-election in Michigan’s U.S. House district 11. The district contains western parts of Wayne and Oakland Counties, and is considered fairly safe for Republicans.
Because McCotter failed to get 1,000 valid signatures to appear on the August 7 primary ballot, he will probably be a write-in candidate in that primary. But according to the story, he may have difficulty winning the nomination, because there is another Republican whose name is printed on the ballot. Also, a more prominent Republican may also launch a write-in campaign. And, although two Democrats are on the Democratic primary ballot (one of them a Lyndon LaRouche supporter), the uncertainty for this seat may mean a more prominent Democrat may also enter the race and become a write-in candidate in the Democratic primary. UPDATE: according to this story, only 244 of McCotter’s 1,830 signatures were valid.
During the month of May, volunteers and paid workers have been working hard in Delaware to increase the number of registered voters in the Green Party, the Constitution Party, and the Working Families Party.
All three were ballot-qualified in Delaware under the old law, which required approximately 300 registered members. But in 2010, the legislature doubled the requirement. The change was not effective until after the 2010 election was over. The Independent Party and the Libertarian Party already had over 600 registered members in any event, so they were not directly injured by the 2010 change. But the new law has forced three other parties to carry out a registration drive.
The three parties were aware that it is easier to get new registered members in Delaware before May 25, when restrictive rules make it impossible for registered voters to change parties. So, all three parties did their best to finish the registration drive before that day, and each believes it has succeeded.
Americans Elect never did any work in Delaware to qualify itself. It is the only state in which Americans Elect could have qualified, without the difficult of coming up with a stand-in presidential candidate, and without a great deal of expense, but in which Americans Elect didn’t try to qualify. This is probably because the founders of Americans Elect have never wanted voters to register into Americans Elect. They are uncomfortable with Americans Elect having registered members. But in Delaware, having approximately 600 registered members is the only way a party may be on the ballot.
