The New Republic has this interesting article by Jacob Rowbottom, a British scholar on campaign finance. Because British campaign finance laws are so strict, the only uninhibited spending about partisan political commentary comes from the newspapers, who are not controlled by campaign finance laws. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Frontloading HQ specializes in news about the dates on which 2012 major party presidential primaries and caucuses will be held in each state and other jurisdiction that send delegates to Democratic and Republican national conventions. According to this post, 18 jurisdictions still haven’t completely settled the primary or caucus date for 2012.
Jim Cook has this article at Irregular Times, expressing doubt that Americans Elect, or any other institution or group, is capable of running an Internet election that is secure from hackers.
On July 21, the Maryland State Board of Elections filed a notice of appeal in Libertarian Party of Maryland v Maryland State Board of Elections, the lawsuit in which the lower court ruled that if election officials can identify any signature on a petition as the signature of a registered voter, then the signature is valid. The lower state court had also put the Libertarian and Green Parties on the 2012 and 2014 ballots.
The Board of Elections did not ask any court to stay the lower court decision, fortunately. Also the Board of Elections has continued to treat the two political parties as ballot-qualified, and recognizes that they do have registered members. It is likely that the State Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) will agree with the lower court, because the State Court of Appeals several months ago ruled that signatures on petitions are valid even if the handwritten signature is illegible. Thanks to Bob Johnston for this news.
The New York special election set for September 13, to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 9th district, will have three candidates on the ballot. The Democratic-Working Families-Independence candidate is David Weprin. The Republican-Conservative candidate is Robert Turner. The Socialist Workers Party candidate is Christopher Hoeppner. Hoeppner got on the ballot by petition, and no one challenged that petition.
The Socialist Workers Party has not had many candidates on the ballot for U.S. House in recent years, but the few it has run have polled relatively high shares of the vote, at least in comparison to the party’s showings historically. In 2010 the SWP had candidates on the ballot in two districts: Iowa’s 3rd district, which includes Des Moines, where Rebecca Williamson received 6,258 votes (2.60%); and New York’s 15th district, which includes Harlem, where Roger Calero received 2,647 votes (2.33%).
