Keith Smith, an assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of the Pacific, has this op-ed about California’s top-two open primary. The main focus is on how it has shrunk voter choice in November elections for Congress and state office.
On October 23, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow issued a tentative ruling in Field vs. Bowen. He refused to reverse his earlier order, requiring plantiffs to pay almost $250,000 in attorney fees.
Attorneys for plantiffs will argue in court Wednesday, October 24, at 9:30 am, to ask Judge Karnow to change his mind.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, please come to the hearing, which is at 9:30 am at 400 McAllister Street, Room 302, San Francisco. UPDATE: Judge Karnow refused to reconsider his earlier opinion, so now the case will be appealed to the State Court of Appeals. Thank you to all the people who attended the hearing. All of the 45 seats in the courtroom were filled, and 25 others were unable to be seated, so remained out in the hallway, unable to either see or hear. There may be publicity about this outcome soon. At the oral argument, Judge Karnow seemed to feel that it is objective truth that a top-two system is intrinsically helpful to the public. Therefore, in his mind, it follows logically that anyone who files a lawsuit against any part of the system is damaging the public interest. This case did not even challenge the essence of the top-two system; it challenged two especially unfair aspects of it that are not present in the Washington state top-two system.
On October 22, Jill Stein sued the Federal Election Commission in Florida state court, concerning the presidential debate held that day in Boca Raton, Florida. Here is the complaint. The rationale for suing the FEC is that federal law does not permit corporations to make direct contributions to federal candidates, yet the FEC refuses to enforce this rule against the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is mostly funded by for-profit corporations. Although the CPD debates are over for this year, the lawsuit, like Gary Johnson’s debates lawsuits, will not be moot and any possible relief could help in 2016.
North Dakota is the only state in which there are no candidates on the November 2012 ballot for state legislature, other than the Democratic and Republican Party nominees.
Even though there are four qualified parties on the ballot in North Dakota, qualified parties in that state cannot run legislative candidates unless approximately 10% to 15% of all the primary voters choose to vote in that party’s primary. North Dakota has open primaries, so a voter is free to vote in any party’s primary, but the idea that such a large share of voters would ever choose a minor primary ballot is unrealistic. In no state with open primaries in the last forty years is there any instance in any state when more than 6% of the state’s primary voters chose a minor party primary ballot.
North Dakota also has very stringent petition requirements for independent candidates for the legislature. They need a petition signed by 2% of the population of the district, including children and aliens. The typical state legislative district in North Dakota only has 6,700 voters in a presidential general election, and in the typical district an independent for the legislature needs 250 signatures. If a minor party nominee does decide to qualify using the independent procedure, he or she is not permitted to have a ballot label other than “independent.”
Even Georgia this year has one independent on the ballot for state legislature. He is Rusty Kidd. He is an incumbent running for re-election, and under a unique Georgia law, independent candidates don’t need a petition if they were elected as an independent in the last regularly-scheduled election.
Politico, in this article, quotes Larry King as saying that the Commission on Presidential Debates ought to invite every presidential candidate who is on in at least 40 states. The article also publicizes the Free & Equal debate that will be held in Chicago on the evening of October 23 at 8 p.m central time. The article says that debate will be carried on C-SPAN, and of course King is the moderator for that debate.
