On March 29, the voters of Rochester, New York, held a special election to elect a new Mayor. The Democratic nominee, Thomas Richards, won with 49% of the vote. However, the Working Families and Independence Parties’ nominee, William Johnson Jr., polled 42%. And the third candidate in the race, Green Party nominee Alex Green, polled 9%.
At 6:20 p.m. on March 29, the 9th circuit issued a very brief order in Chamness v Bowen, 11-70882. This is the federal lawsuit over whether California election law is unconstitutional for denying members of unqualified parties, and independent candidates, any label on the ballot except “no party preference.”
The order says, “Treating the petition as a request for a writ of mandamus to compel the district court to issue a preliminary injunction, the petition is denied. The district court is requested to act promptly on petitioner’s motion for a preliminary injunction.” The U.S. District Court held oral arguments on March 22 but still hasn’t ruled. Los Angeles County elections officials plan to start printing overseas absentee ballots on March 30, in the special election for U.S. House, 36th district. Chamness is on the ballot in that race.
The Canadian Broadcast Consortium has decided not to permit the Green Party leader to be included in the debates being planned just before the May 2 national parliamentary election. See this story. The policy is that only parties with elected members may be invited. The Green Party has high hopes of electing its first member of Parliament this year, but so far it hasn’t elected anyone to that body. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
The Canadian Green Party has a candidate in every district in Canada this year, while the Bloc Quebecois, which is included in the debate, only runs in Quebec.
On March 29, the 6th circuit refused to rehear Hunter v Hamilton County Board of Elections, so now the provisional ballots will finally be counted in a local partisan judicial race from the November 2, 2010 election. Ohio election law says provisional ballots are not valid if they are turned in to the wrong precinct. However, several hundred voters turned in their provisional ballots at the wrong precinct (although in the right building) because poll workers gave them mis-information. Because Hamilton County had already decided to count another set of provisional ballots that were legally shaky, the U.S. District Court and the original 6th circuit panel had ruled that Hamilton County must also count these disputed ballots. The two candidates in that election have been waiting a long time for a complete vote count. Thanks to Moritz for this news.
On March 29, the Illinois House passed HB 2009, which restricts who can be an independent candidate. The vote was 75-38. The bill says if anyone ran for any partisan office in the primary and lost, he or she cannot run for any partisan office in the general election under a different designation. Also, anyone who won a partisan primary but withdrew cannot then run under a different designation for any partisan office in November.
The vote does not seem to have been based on partisanship. The 38 “No” votes included 24 Democrats and 14 Republicans. The Democrats who voted “No” are: Acevedo, Arroyo, Berrios, Daniel Burke, Burns, Chapa LaVia, Crespo, Currie, Farnham, Ford, Franks, Gabel, Greg Harris, Jefferson, Lang, Mayfield, McCarthy, Mendoza, Mussman, Osterman, Soto, Turner, Williams, and Yarbrough.
The Republicans who voted “no” are: Barickman, Brown, Coladipietro, Eddy, Hammond, David Harris, Kay, Bill Mitchell, Reboletti, Reis, Rose, Rosenthal, Roth, Sacia.
