On January 27, the California Supreme Court issued this opinion on redistricting. The court ruled that the State Senate district boundaries in force in 2012 will be the boundaries drawn by the Redistricting Commisison. Thus, the Republican Party-backed referendum petition against those districts will have no effect in 2012.
The decision is unanimous, although Justice Goodwin Liu wrote separately to criticize some of the reasoning in the majority opinion.
Ever since 1979, Lyndon LaRouche has held himself out as a Democrat, and his organization has recruited candidates for Congress and other important office to run in Democratic Party primaries. The organization continues this activity. Here is a story about the LaRouche organization’s candidate for the Democratic nomination in the New Jersey U.S. House race, 5th district. The candidate is Diane Sare. The LaRouche organization’s biggest visibility in recent years has been its large posters, displayed in public places, showing President Obama with a Hitler-like moustache.
On January 26, the Virginia House Privileges and Elections Committee passed HB 1132, to allow write-in votes in primaries. Virginia already permits write-in votes in general elections. It is ironic that at the same time Virginia is adding write-in space on some ballots, the California legislature is about to pass AB 1413, which eliminates write-in space on general election ballots for Congress and state office.
The Virginia committee vote was 19-3. The only three “no” votes were two Republican delegates, Jackson H. Miller and Israel O’Quinn; and one Democrat, J. M. Scott.
The same Virginia committee also defeated HB 769, which would put party labels on general election ballots for local partisan office. Currently, parties in Virginia nominate candidates for many local offices, but no party labels appear on the ballot for these local offices. Other states in which parties nominate candidates for certain offices, but party labels are omitted from the general election ballot, are judicial races in Michigan and Ohio.
Before 2001, Virginia even omitted party labels from the November ballot for Congress and state office.
In 2011, the Arizona Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill, HB 2304, included a section to let voters sign nominating petitions on-line. Arizona implements this new law on February 1. Candidates seeking a place on a party primary ballot, and independent candidates seeking to get on the November ballot, may collect up to 50% of their signatures on-line. Voters sign an on-line petition by using the Secretary of State’s web page.
This procedure does not apply to initiative petitions, or petitions for federal office, or petitions to qualify a new party. If the process seems successful, it may be expanded to include those petitions. Thanks to Eli Kaminsky for this news.
As noted earlier, on January 25 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the legislative district boundaries are unconstitutional, but has not yet explained the basis for its opinion. State legislators feel they can’t work on a new plan until they understand what is wrong with the old plan. Two of the State Supreme Court Justices are now attending a conference in Puerto Rico. According to this story, legislative leaders are frustrated with these justices, because legislative leaders want the full opinion as soon as possible. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.
