San Francisco uses Instant Runoff Voting for most of its city elections. The city chooses a Mayor on November 8. Benenson Strategy Group, a pollster, went to the trouble to simulate the Instant Runoff Voting system in its poll. See this story. The poll shows that after a specified number of rounds, the incumbent Mayor, Ed Lee, has majority support. The poll didn’t reveal how many rounds were needed to produce this result. After just the first round, Lee had 31% support. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.

On September 7, no hearing was held on California’s AB 1413, the bill that removes write-in space from November ballots for Congress and state office. The leadership of the legislature has decided not to consider the bill until next year. Thanks to everyone who telephoned the California State Senate President’s office complaining about the bill. UPDATE: here is a Sacramento Bee story about the bill. The story explains some of the other issues in the bill.

On September 7, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the state not to enforce the ballot access law passed earlier this year by the legislature. The 12-page decision is Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 2:11-cv-722, and says in all likelihood, the new law’s deadline of early February is too early. It is not yet known if the Secretary of State will appeal. If there is no appeal, it is likely that the Constitution, Green and Socialist Parties will merit the same relief.