On November 28, Egypt elects members of the People’s Assembly, the lower house of the national legislature. See this explanation of the voting system. Voters fill 498 seats. 332 are chosen by proportional representation, using the party list system. The other 166 seats are chosen in the same manner that the United States, Britain, and Canada choose members, by “first-past-the-post.” Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.
Politico has this article by Rob Richie and Elise Helgesen, exploring the point that Republican national bylaws, if enforced, may lead to credentials challenges at the Republican national convention that convenes August 27, 2012. The bylaws say that states choosing delegates before April 1 must not use the “unit rule” (a rule that forces all delegates from one particular state to vote for the candidate preferred by a plurality of the delegation). Also, the bylaws deprive states that choose delegates as early as January half their delegates. And, the bylaws even require closed primaries for choosing delegates.
It is possible that the national convention will enforce some of these rules but not all of them.
U.S. House district boundaries for 2012 are still unsettled in six of the seven most populous states. Only California’s U.S. House district boundaries are established.
The legislatures of Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania still haven’t passed any congressional redistricting bills. In Texas and Illinois, the legislatures have passed bills to draw new U.S. House districts, but lawsuits are challenging the new districts, and courts have already ordered the normal petitioning period for primary ballot access in those states pushed back. And in Ohio, the U.S. House districts were redrawn by the legislature, but a referendum petition is circulating. If the petition obtains enough signatures, the legislature’s plan can’t be used until the people vote on the plan in November 2012.
Americans Elect’s web page updates the number of signatures it has collected nationwide on a weekly basis. This week’s national total is 2,107,742, which is 50,501 signtures more than the previous week’s total.
On Friday, November 25, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Texas refused a request by the state that the legislature’s own redistricting plan (for both houses of the legislature) be used, instead of the one drawn up by that Court. Texas said it would be asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the lower court. See this story. The U.S. District Court vote was 2-1. The case is Perez v Texas, 5:11-cv-360, in the western district in San Antonio.
