On December 10, a lower state court in Juneau, Alaska ruled that the state was correct to count write-ins for Lisa Murkowski even when the spelling was imperfect. See this story. Joe Miller, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, and who filed the lawsuit, will probably appeal to the State Supreme Court. Here is the 34-page ruling.
UPDATE: also on December 10, the state filed this request with the federal court, asking that the federal stay be lifted.
On December 10, the 9th circuit issued a 3-page memorandum in Kelly v McCulloch, 10-35174. This is the case that challenges Montana ballot access laws for non-presidential statewide independent candidates, especially the March petition deadline, and also the law that requires approximately 10,000 signatures (even though new parties only need 5,000 signatures, and presidential independents also need 5,000 signatures).
The U.S. District Court had dismissed the case on February 3, 2010, saying none of the plaintiffs had standing. But the 9th circuit recent order says voters, as well as candidates, have standing to challenge restrictive ballot access laws. Therefore, the plaintiffs in this case do have standing. The 9th circuit returned the case to the U.S. District Court for a ruling on the merits. UPDATE: on December 14, the mainstream Montana press finally reported on this news. See this story.
On December 10, two important campaign finance cert petitions were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Louisiana Republican Congressman Joseph Cao, along with the Republican National Committee, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Cao v Federal Election Commission. And the Connecticut Green Party asked that Court to hear Green Party of Connecticut v Lenge, the case against Connecticut’s discriminatory law on public funding of candidates for state office.
See here for the Cao cert petition, which challenges part of the McCain-Feingold law which does not permit a political party to spend more than $5,000 to help the campaign of one its nominees, unless the party spending is completely uncoordinated with the nominee. Cao and the Republican Party argue that the limit is unconstitutional, as to campaign speech in which the party is speaking its own message. Cao argues there is a difference between party spending that advocates the party’s message (but which is coordinated with the nominee), versus a party simply paying campaign bills for its nominee. The full 5th circuit had rejected Cao’s argument by a vote of 11-5.
Here is the Green Party cert petition. The Appendix is very long, but the text of the petition itself only occupies the first 34 pages.
The New York State Board of Elections expects to release the official November 2, 2010 election results on Monday, December 13.
North Carolina used Instant Runoff Voting to elect a State Court of Appeals judge last month. The final tally is close, with the winner only 6,000 votes ahead of the second-place finisher. The second-place finisher has asked for a recount, which will take place during the week of December 13-17. See this story. The race is non-partisan.
