The National Popular Vote Plan leaders in South Dakota now say they will not try to put an initiative on the 2012 ballot, asking voters if they wish South Dakota to join the Plan. See this story. Some months ago, it had appeared likely that such an initiative would be on the ballot in South Dakota.
On October 24, the Missouri legislature adjourned its special session without having taken any action to cancel the February 7 presidential primary. Thereofore, it will go ahead, for the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties. The Libertarian Party has used its Missouri presidential primary before, but 2012 will be the first time Missouri has held a presidential primary for the Constitution Party. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for this news.
Ballotpedia has this very useful analysis of the regularly-scheduled state legislative elections. The study finds that in 42.6% of the races, only one major party candidate is running in the general election. This is even worse than the norm in even-numbered election years, when many more states hold regularly-scheduled legislative elections. Generally, in even-numbered years, between 32% and 37% of the races have only one major party person running.
Because there are relatively few minor party and independent candidates, this means that most voters this year have only one choice on general election ballots for state legislature. Legislatures dominated by Republicans and Democrats pass laws that make it very easy for members of those two parties to run for office, and (in many cases) very difficult for anyone else to run. Then, the two major parties, having achieved near-monopoly status for themselves, do not even use their guaranteed spots on the ballot to recruit and run nominees much of the time. And yet courts continually uphold restrictive ballot access laws under the theory that without those laws, the ballots will be too crowded.
Latest figures from the Tunisia election of October 23 are that 90% of the registered voters voted. See this story.
Kentucky elects its statewide state officers on November 8, 2011. There are three candidates on the ballot for the combined office of Governor/Lieutenant Governor. On October 24, a televised debate was held for the three candidates for Lieutenant Governor (Republican, Democratic, independent). See this story. There will be another three-way gubernatorial debate soon.
