The Los Angeles Times has this story about Vernon, California, a city which never has contested city elections, and in which virtually all voters are dependent on city officials for the ability to live inside the city limits. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
Hawaii held a primary for the five ballot-qualified parties on Saturday, September 18. Tentative returns show that 336 voters chose the Green Party primary, 316 voters chose the Libertarian primary, and 180 voters chose the Free Energy Party. A total of 279,797 people voted.
Hawaii also provided a non-partisan primary ballot, which exists so that voters can show support for an independent candidate. Two independent candidates received enough votes to appear on the ballot for Governor, and one independent candidate received enough votes to appear on the ballot for U.S. Senate. However, the only independent running for state legislature, Jonathan Abel, did not receive enough votes to qualify for November. He needed 24 votes but he only received 11. UPDATE: as Jim Riley correctly notes in his comment below, only one independent candidate will appear on the November ballot for Governor, because Hawaii election law does not permit more than one independent candidate to qualify for the November ballot, which seems to be a requirement of dubious constitutionality.
Gallup Polls has been asking the U.S. public if they feel a major new party is needed, ever since 2003. The latest such poll shows 58% responding “Yes”, 35% “No”, and 7% undecided. See this story. That is tied for the highest response ever recorded in this poll. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.
On September 23, the U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee will hold a vote on HR 1826, the bill to provide for public funding for candidates for Congress. See here.
Slate has this essay on how election officials handle write-in votes, when the voter spells the candidate’s name incorrectly. The article was prompted by the interest in write-in votes caused when U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski declared she will be a write-in candidate for re-election. Thanks to Henry Hirose for the link.
The principle that the voter’s intent should control is an old one, that has been promulgated by courts in the United States for over a century.
