On October 16, French voters chose Francois Hollande to be the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate. This is the first time any French political party has used a primary to choose its presidential nominee. Voters who said they sympathized with the left, and who paid one Euro, were free to vote in the primary. The first round had been on October 9, when six candidates ran. Because no one got as much as 50%, a run-off was held a week later. See this story, which says that 2,800,000 voters participated. It is not clear if this is the number who voted in the first round, or the second round.

On October 16, the Socialist Party, meeting in national convention in Los Angeles, chose Stewart Alexander for President, and Alejandro Mendoza for Vice-President. See this story from Uncovered Politics for the details. This is the first time the Socialist Party has ever nominated a presidential candidate who is a member of a racial or ethnic minority.

Douglas Schoen has this opinion piece, which argues that the surprising support in polls for Herman Cain for the Republican presidential nomination is really a manifestation of public anger with the two major parties. Cain, of course, has never been elected to public office (although he once ran in a Republican primary for U.S. Senate from Georgia). Schoen is a supporter of Americans Elect, and a professional pollster.

Also, see this Huffington Post description of Americans Elect, authored by Elliot Ackerman, CEO of Americans Elect. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for both links.