On November 19, former Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode addressed the Constitution Party of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Lancaster daily newspaper wrote this story about Goode’s talk.
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Election law professor Justin Levitt has a comprehensive web page, “All About Redistricting”. See it at redistricting.lls.edu. Among other features, it has information about all known lawsuits involving redistricting since the 2010 census results came out.
On November 18, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Illinois heard arguments in a Republican Party lawsuit against Illinois’ new U.S. House district boundaries. This article says both sides are pondering whether to arrange for a later petitioning period for candidates for U.S. House who are seeking a place on primary ballots. Under existing rules, primary petitions are due in early December. The primary is March 20, 2012.
The case is Committee for a Fair & Balanced Map v Illinois State Board of Elections, 1:11-cv-5065, in the northern district.
The November 20 Los Angeles Times has this article on Americans Elect. The reporter focuses on trying to determine the motives of the people who launched it, and on balance concludes that there is nothing conspiratorial about its origins, and that its backers have no hidden agenda to injure either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.
The article, near the end, has an error when it says that the directors of Americans Elect can veto the choice of the voters in the Americans Elect primary. It says the directors can remove a ticket if it is not centrist. This is doubly in error. First, using the Ron Paul example that the reporter used, if Ron Paul won the Americans Elect primary and chose a Democrat for vice-president, then Paul’s nomination is guaranteed because the rules say a ticket composed of a Republican and a Democrat is “deemed” to be “balanced.” And even if Ron Paul won the Americans Elect presidential primary and chose a member of a minor party, or an independent, the directors could not veto that ticket on the grounds that it is not “centrist.” They could only scrutinize it to see if it is “balanced”, which is entirely different. Thus, if Ron Paul won the Americans Elect presidential primary and chose a registered independent (for example, Ralph Nader), that ticket would be evaluated to see if it is “balanced”, not “centrist.” Most neutral observers would probably agree that a Paul-Nader ticket is “balanced”, but not “centrist.”
Louisiana elects all its state officers in the odd years before presidential election years. This year the first round was on October 22, and if no one received at least 50% in the first round, a run-off was held on November 19. Two independents were elected in this year’s election to the State House.
The first independent was an incumbent, Jerome “Dee” Richard. He was re-elected on October 22, 2011. He had also been elected as an independent four years earlier. In the first round, in the 55th district, he polled 78.04% against a Republican.
The second independent elected this year is Terry Brown, in the 22nd district in north central Louisiana. He had placed second in the first round, where the results had been: Billy Chandler, incumbent Republican, 40.83%; Terry Brown 33.31%; Tim Murphy, Republican, 25.85%. In the November 19 run-off, the vote is: Terry Brown 52.40%, Billy Chandleer 47.60%. See this story.
In 2007, an independent named Joel Robideaux had been elected as an independent in the 45th district. Although he was re-elected in 2011, by then he had become a Republican. His only opponent in the October 22, 2011 election was Libertarian W. David Chance, who polled 21.19% against 78.81% for Robideaux. Thanks to Randall Hayes for the link.