Alabama elects all its state legislators to four-year terms, in midterm years. At the November 2010 election Republicans won majorities in both houses of the Alabama legislature for the first time since the 19th century. Now, four more Democrats have switched parties, even though they had been elected as Democrats just three weeks ago. See this story.
November 22 was the deadline for candidates for Mayor of Chicago to file petitions. The city requires 12,500 valid signatures. The race is non-partisan. Because no incumbent is running, there are far more candidates than normal. It appears that eleven candidates submitted petitions, although it is too early to know how many of them have at least 12,500 signatures. Under Illinois law, a petition is deemed to be valid, even if it has only one signature, if no one challenges it.
The Chicago election is on February 22, 2011. Chicago requires far more signatures to run for Mayor than any other city in the United States. The new, lower petition requirement to run for Mayor of New York city is 3,750, whether the candidate is running in a party primary or petitioning directly for the general election.
On November 22, the Utah Elections office posted the official canvass of votes to its web page. The figures show that the Libertarian Party did receive enough votes to remain ballot-qualified. On election night, it appeared that the party had failed to re-qualify by about 100 votes. But the official figures are more favorable.
The party needed to receive 12,810 votes for one of its nominees. Its gubernatorial nominee polled 12,871 votes. This means the Libertarian Party is now ballot-qualified for president in 2012 in 27 states. A petition drive is underway in Maryland which should be finished by early January, which will increase the number to 28. If the New York official canvass shows that the party polled at least 50,000 votes for Governor, that will increase the number to 29. That canvass won’t be finished until mid-December.
It was already obvious, on election night, that the Constitution Party had received enough votes to remain on the ballot in Utah. Its nominee for U.S. Senate polled 35,937 votes, almost 6%. The Constitution Party is on the ballot for president already in 12 states. The Green Party is now on for president in 2012 in 14 states, and that will increase to 15 when it submits its Maryland petition by the end of the year.
On November 19, Citizens Action filed a lawsuit in the West Virginia Supreme Court, hoping to get a ruling that the state must hold a special gubernatorial election in the first half of 2011. Joe Manchin resigned from being Governor recently because he had been elected in the middle of his 4-year term to the U.S. Senate. The State Constitution requires a special election when the governorship becomes empty when there is at least one year to go in the term. But it doesn’t say when the special election should be. See this story.
Although the story mentions that the Republican Party backs this lawsuit, Citizens Action is more closely associated with the Mountain Party than it is with conservative groups. If there is no special election, the President of the State Senate will serve as acting Governor until the end of 2012.
Rich Whitney, Green Party candidate for Governor of Illinois in this month’s election, filed a federal lawsuit against a public television station before the election, over the station’s sponsorship of a debate that did not include him. Whitney will pursue the case even though the election is over. Here is his complaint, which had been filed on October 29. The case is Whitney v Window to the World Communications, 2010-cv-7003. It is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman, a Clinton appointee.
