Starting in 2013, the Czech Republic elects its President by popular vote. Previously, Parliament had chosen the President. Because the Czech Republic uses a parliamentary system, the Presidency is not endowed with a great deal of political power, but the Czech President does represent the nation, and chooses some judges.

The election law requires a candidate for President to have the endorsement of 10 Senators, or 20 members of the Chamber of Deputies, or submit 50,000 signatures. The Czech Republic has a population of approximately ten million; 50,000 is somewhat less than 1% of the eligible signers. Nine candidates qualified for the January 11-12, 2013 ballot. Three qualified by obtaining endorsements from members of Parliament, and six qualified with petitions. One of the six who qualified by petition was initially told she didn’t have enough valid signatures, but a court ruled that she did have enough.

No one polled as much as 50%, so a run-off was held two weeks later, which was won by Milos Zeman. Here is the wikipedia article about the election. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.

On January 25, U.S. District Court Timothy S. Black, an Obama appointee, rejected the defamation lawsuit filed in 2010 by former Ohio Congressman Steve Driehaus. Here is the 7-page opinion, Susan B. Anthony List v Driehaus, 1:10-cv-720, southern district. Congressman Driehaus, who had represented Cincinnati, had been defeated in November 2010. He then sued the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization that fights legal abortion, because the List had threatened to erect billboards in the district before the election that would have said, “Shame on Steve Driehaus! Driehaus voted for taxpayer-funded abortions.”

The billboards were never actually erected, because the List had been threatened with prosecution. Ohio election law, since 1995, has said, “No person, during the course of any campaign for nomination or election to public office, shall knowingly…make a false statement concerning the voting record of a candidate or public official.” The List had responded by filing a federal lawsuit against that Ohio law, but when that did not succeed, Driehaus had filed his own lawsuit, arguing that the List had defamed him and caused him loss of livelihood. That is the lawsuit that has just been dismissed. Judge Black determined that the proposed billboard was not defamatory.

When this case had first been filed, Judge Black had been criticized because he had not recused himself, because he was President and Director of Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati before he was a federal judge. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link to the January 25, 2013 decision.

On Saturday, January 26, Texas held a special State Senate election, 6th district, in Houston. Here are the election returns, from the Secretary of State’s web page. Parties did not have nominees, but party labels appeared on the ballot. Although not all provisional and absentee ballots have been counted, all precincts have reported, and it appears only 6% of the registered voters participated. The district has 284,000 registered voters.