Freakonomics has this story about Instant Runoff Voting, with an emphasis on the Portland, Maine Mayoral election of November 8, 2011. The story shows the ballot, which allows voters to rank as many candidates as they wish. The election has 15 candidates, including two Green Party members (the election is non-partisan).
On October 24, the highest state court in Maryland, which is called the Court of Appeals, decided to hear Maryland State Board of Elections v Libertarian Party of Maryland, et al, no. 2011-277. The Libertarian and Green Parties had won this case at the trial court level. The state had then appealed to the mid-level court, but now the highest court will hear the case, so that there will be no proceedings in the mid-level court.
The issue is whether petition signatures are valid when the signer can be identified as a registered voter, but there is some slight difference between how the voter put his or her name and address on the petition, versus how it appears on the voter registration records. Another issue is whether, when a voter signs the petition twice, whether both signatures should be invalidated, or whether one of the signatures counts. The Maryland Court of Appeals, in the recent past, has been an excellent court for ballot access. Thanks to Doug McNeil for this news.
Greenwood, Indiana, holds partisan city elections on November 8, 2011. The only office on the ballot is Mayor. The ballot contains three candidates: Republican Mark W. Myers; Libertarian Jeff Spoonamore; and independent candidate David A. Payne. The Johnson County Election Board, which handles ballot-printing for Greenwood, originally printed the ballots showing Spoonamore on the bottom. However, Indiana election law says the nominees of qualified parties should appear on the general election ballot ahead of independent candidates.
Some Greenwood voters who are not members of the Libertarian Party complained, so the election board reprinted the ballots, so that the new ballots list Spoonamore second. Here is a story about the mayoral race, although it doesn’t mention the ballot order issue. But the story shows a picture of the three candidates, who debated each other on November 1. Thanks to Mark Rutherford for the news.
Greenwood is a rapidly-growing city of 50,000, just south of Indianapolis.
Juan Williams, an award-winning journalist who worked for National Public Radio 2000-2010 and is now a political analyst for Fox News Channel, writes here that Ron Paul might conceivably be the Americans Elect presidential nominee.
Christine Todd Whitman, who was elected as a Republican to the New Jersey governorship in 1993, and re-elected in 1997, has endorsed Americans Elect. See this op-ed from the Washington Post. Whitman was also Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency between 2001 and 2003. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
