On October 25, the Alaska Democratic and Republican Parties jointly sued the Alaska Elections Division for its policy of saying voters at the polls may see a list of the Declared write-in candidates. See this story. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.
U.S. District Court Judge Raymond J. Dearie, a Reagan appointee, will hold another hearing in Credico v New York State Board of Elections on Tuesday, October 26, at 3 p.m. This is the case over whether Randy Credico should be listed twice on the New York state ballot as a candidate for U.S. Senate. Judge Dearie issued a 10-page memorandum on October 25 and found that New York state lacks any rational reason whatsover to treat Credico differently than someone who is the nominee of two qualified parties. But he stayed his own order until the October 26 hearing.
The memo says that printing Credico’s name on the ballot only once is not a severe burden. But it also says that the claimed state interest in not listing him in both columns (or rows, depending on whether one is talking of the New York city ballot or the ballot in the remainder of the state) is non-existent. The memo says the two parties each have their own line on the ballot anyway, so to refuse to list Credico in both lines is “absurd” and will cause voter confusion.
The purpose of the October 26 hearing is to see if it is true that it is impossible to give relief this election year, due to the fact that the election is only one week away.
On October 25, attorneys for the New York state Board of Elections sent a letter to the U.S. District Court that is hearing Credico v New York State Board of Elections, 10cv-4555 (eastern district). The letter asks the Judge to stay his own preliminary injunction. The injunction tells the board to reprint ballots so that voters can vote for Randy Credico for U.S. Senate under either party label, “Libertarian” or “Anti-Prohibition.” The letter says if the Judge doesn’t stay his own opinion, the Board will ask the 2nd circuit to stay it.
Without any judicial relief, voters who vote for Credico will be forced to vote for him in a manner that does not reveal whether that voter supports the Libertarian Party or the Anti-Prohibition Party.
A University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, released October 25, shows these results for Governor: Republican Rick Perry 50%, Democrat Bill White 40%, Libertarian Kathie Glass 8%, Green Party nominee Deb Shafto 2%. There are no undecideds, because if a respondent first said “Undecided”, the pollster then encouraged the respondent to say which way he or she is leaning.
The poll has the results of all the partisan executive statewide posts, showing Libertarians in some statewide races at 12%, even though all these races have a Democrat and a Republican in the race as well. In the one executive statewide race with no Democrat running, the Green Party nominee is at 9%. Thanks to Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for the link.
A campaign to re-elect Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty as a write-in candidate is proceeding in the District of Columbia. Volunteers for the write-in campaign have prepared tens of thousands of rubber stamps, and distributing them to voters just outside the “no-electioneering” zone, at polling places. See this story. The rubber stamps have “Adrian Fenty” and a voter who uses a rubber stamp need not worry about how to spell the name. Use of rubber stamps is legal in the District of Columbia for this purpose.
Mayor Fenty was defeated for re-election last month in the Democratic primary. He is not actively campaigning for re-election in the general election.
