Beaufort County, South Carolina, Election Board members are disputing state policy that says taxpayers are to pay approximately half the costs of putting on the 2012 Republican presidential primary. See this story.
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One of the least-discussed flaws with the Electoral College system is that there are an even number of presidential electors. Generally, commentators assume some presidential candidate will always receive a majority of the electoral votes if no minor party or independent candidate carries a state. But that assumption is wrong. Even with only two candidates receiving electoral votes, a tie could occur and then the U.S. House would choose the president, with each state having one vote. See this. Scroll down to the bottom. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
The Electoral College did result in a tie in 1800. Also, in the 1876 election, the winner received only one more electoral vote than the loser.
San Francisco uses Instant Runoff Voting for most of its city elections. The city chooses a Mayor on November 8. Benenson Strategy Group, a pollster, went to the trouble to simulate the Instant Runoff Voting system in its poll. See this story. The poll shows that after a specified number of rounds, the incumbent Mayor, Ed Lee, has majority support. The poll didn’t reveal how many rounds were needed to produce this result. After just the first round, Lee had 31% support. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.
On September 7, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB 448, which says that paid initiative circulators must wear a badge that says “Paid circulator.” Here is his veto message, which says, “If it is acceptable to force paid signature gatherers to place identifying badges on their chests, will similar requirements soon be placed on paid campaign workers?” Thanks to Paul Jacob for this news.
On September 7, no hearing was held on California’s AB 1413, the bill that removes write-in space from November ballots for Congress and state office. The leadership of the legislature has decided not to consider the bill until next year. Thanks to everyone who telephoned the California State Senate President’s office complaining about the bill. UPDATE: here is a Sacramento Bee story about the bill. The story explains some of the other issues in the bill.