On November 16, the Rhode Island Republican Party voted to maintain the policy of letting independent voters vote in Republican primaries. Although a majority of delegates wanted to close the party’s primaries, the measure required two-thirds to pass, and the idea did not have that much support. See this story.
On October 26, the California Supreme Court refused to hear Kunde v Seiler, S195849. This is the lawsuit over whether San Diego County election officials were correct when they let the Republican Party include campaign literature in the same envelope in which the government mailed sample ballots in May 2010 to Republican registrants. The election code lets parties include a self-addressed stamped envelope to make it easy for that voter to send a contribution to that party. The State Court of Appeals had ruled on July 13, 2011, that the law inplicitly permits party literature as well. The State Court of Appeals decision will now stand.
On November 17, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Texas issued proposed new legislative district boundaries. See this story. The maps are not final, and even if they were final, they would not go into effect if another 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., upholds the boundaries drawn by the Texas legislature earlier this year.
The Americans Elect web page says 2,057,241 signatures have collected on ballot access petitions around the nation. Last week’s total had been 2,008,069. Therefore, 49,172 signatures have been collected in the past week. By contrast, 69,604 signatures had been collected in the preceding week.
The Progressive Party, which is ballot-qualified in Oregon, has nominated Steven Reynolds to run for U.S. House, First District, in the special election being held early next year. See this story. The Libertarian Party had already nominated someone for this seat as well. The Independent Party is in the process of holding a mail ballot primary to decide whether to cross-endorse another candidate or run its own nominee.
The Oregon Progressive Party has never before nominated its own member for a U.S. House race, although in 2010 it cross-endorsed three Green Party U.S. House nominees. The party was formed in 2008 to serve as a ballot access vehicle for Ralph Nader’s independent run. When it was first formed, it was called the Peace Party, but then it changed its name to the Progressive Party.
