Although the 2011 session of the Texas legislature created new boundaries for U.S. House districts, those boundaries are under attack in court. This story explains the problems this is making for candidates and election administrators, because filing for the 2012 primary starts in November 2011. Legislative district boundaries are also unsettled.
According to this story, the Missouri legislature might still abolish the 2012 presidential primary. Technically the legislature is in special session. In fact, legislators aren’t present at the State Capitol, but they maintain the legal ability to appear there and pass laws.
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.
Oregon holds a special election on January 31, 2012, to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 1st district. The vacancy was caused when incumbent David Wu resigned earlier this year. On September 28, the Oregon Libertarian Party held a nominating convention and chose James Foster. See this story on the party’s web page. The deadline for Oregon’s qualified minor parties to nominate someone is December 1. Republicans and Democrats are choosing a nominee by primary. The all-mail primary ballots are being mailed on October 21, and all major party primary ballots are due by November 8.
Oregon’s other ballot-qualified minor parties are: Pacific Green, Constitution, Working Families, Progressive, and Independent. The Independent Party and the Working Families Party are likely to cross-nominate one of the major party nominees, so they will probably wait until after the major party primaries are held.
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.
