Mary Ann Lindley, editorial page editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, has commentary about Americans Elect in the September 24 issue of her newspaper. I haven’t linked to it, because if I do, anyone who clicks on the link simply gets a notice from the newspaper that the reader must pay to read the column. But anyone who uses news.google.com and searches for “New player takes on the two-party system” should find the column and then it can be read freely.
Here are the results of the September 24 Florida Republican straw poll vote. Apparently write-ins weren’t permitted.
For more than a week, Pennsylvania Senator Dominic Pileggi (R-Chester) has been getting publicity for his plan to introduce a bill, providing that Pennsylvania would elect one presidential elector from each U.S. House district. However, his staff refuses to release the text of the proposed bill, even though it must have been written, because Senator Pileggi has been circulating a copy of it to other state legislators, asking them to co-sponsor it.
The details could be injurious to minor party and independent presidential candidates. It is not clear if the bill will require a candidate for presidential elector to live in any particular district. In Pennsylvania, petitioning presidential candidates must find their candidates for presidential elector before beginning to circulate the petition, and then must print the names of the presidential elector candidates on the petition. The paperwork burden will be increased if the list must include a candidate for presidential elector who resides in each district.
The National Popular Vote Plan organization is among the dozens of non-profit organizations whose funds may have been depleted by the apparent embezzlement of Kinde Durkee. See this story, which says that Durkee was accountant and treasurer for the organization. Most of the publicity about her has focused on the impact Durkee has had on U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s campaign funds.
The September 23 New York Times has this story about Switzerland’s political party system. The article emphasizes how easy it is for parties to be formed and get on the ballot. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link. It might be added that several U.S. Supreme Court opinions say the purpose of restrictive ballot access laws is to promote “stability”. In 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Hawaii’s ban on write-in votes on the grounds that the ban promotes “stability.” Yet Switzerland, with very lenient ballot access laws, and which permits write-ins, is one of the most stable nations in the world.
