On September 14, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer asked for a response from the Appellees in Burris v Judge, 10A272.  This is the case in which U.S. Senator Roland Burris of Illinois argues that the lower federal courts overstepped their authority when they told Illinois whom to print on the November 2, 2010 ballot in the special U.S. Senate election.

The U.S. District Court Judge in this case had ordered that everyone who is on the ballot for the 6-year regular term should also be on the ballot for the special 2-month term, and no one else could run in the special election.

If the U.S. Supreme Court acts on the side of Senator Burris, one possible relief would be to simply cancel the special election.  Another possibility would be for Illinois to hold a special election with no names on the ballot, and depend on write-ins to elect someone to the 2-month term.  This is how California handled a similar election in November 1946.  A third possibility would be that state party committees be authorized to choose a party nominee in the special election, although that solution would still leave the problem of how independent candidates could qualify for the special election.  In 1986, when Michigan had no statutory procedure for independent candidates to get on the ballot, the Secretary of State simply placed any independent candidate on the ballot who requested to be on, which worked well.

The two Colorado voters who had sued the Secretary of State, arguing that Tom Tancredo should not be on the ballot, have decided not to appeal, so it is certain that Tancredo will be on the ballot.  Thanks to John Duffy for this news.

The state district court ruling will be a useful precedent for ballot-qualified minor parties in Colorado in the future, giving them flexibility to replace their original nominees with replacement nominees who had not been previously registered members of that party.

According to this story, Rick Lazio received 11,084 votes in the New York Conservative Party gubernatorial primary, defeating Ralph Lorigo, who had 7,254.  That was with 89% of the precincts counted.

Lorigo is an ally of Carl Paladino, who defeated Lazio in the Republican gubernatorial primary.  The new few days will determine whether Lazio will continue to be the Conservative Party nominee, or whether he will withdraw.  This story says that for now, Lazio will continue to run as the Conservative Party nominee.