Ralph Nader has this interesting commentary about the 2012 presidential election on Bloomberg.
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On April 27, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Nevada Commission on Ethics v Carrigan, 10-568. Here is a summary of that argument by Lyle Denniston of Scotusblog. The case explores whether the First Amendment free speech provision has any protection for government officials when they vote on official business. The case arose in Sparks, when a city councilmember voted in favor of a casino project. He was then censured by the Ethics Commission, because a friend of his, who had once been his campaign manager, was involved with that casino. The Nevada Supreme Court then said the Ethics Commission’s action violated the councilmember’s free speech.
UPDATE: here is the 67-page transcript.
On April 27, the Georgia Secretary of State’s new Elections Advisory Council held a public meeting in the State Capitol in Atlanta, to hear complaints or suggestions from members of the public for improving Georgia election laws. Several Georgians complained about Georgia’s ballot access laws, including Faye Coffield and Ray Boyd (who are both independents), Jack Aiken of the Libertarian Party, and Al Herman, Nan Garret, Adam Shapiro, and John Fortune from the Green Party. Also, Georgia Representative Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, who is not a member of the Council, testified that the ballot access laws are too strict.
Several of the members of the Council then said that they are concerned about the ballot access laws being too harsh. Nineteen members of the public made statements about one issue or another. There were comments for and against electronic vote-counting machines, and in favor of Instant Runoff Voting. UPDATE: here is a newspaper story about the hearing.
On April 27, a 3-judge U.S. District Court heard oral arguments in Desena v State of Maine, 1:11-cv-117. The issue is whether the U.S. Constitution requires Maine to redraw its U.S. House district boundaries before the 2012 election. Maine law says redistricting should not occur until 2013. See this story. The judges indicated they will rule by June 2011.
On April 26, Washington, D.C., held a special election to fill a vacant city council-at-large seat. In D.C. special elections for partisan office, parties are not permitted to nominate candidates. Individuals run against each other and there is no run-off. The race had 9 candidates on the ballot, including six Democrats. With that many Democrats in the race, but only one Republican, the Republican, Patrick Mara, came close to winning. Mara placed second, with 11,096 votes so far. But the winner, former Councilmember Vincent Orange, a Democrat, won the race with 12,216 votes. Here are the full results.