On August 12, New York Governor David Paterson signed a budget bill that incorporates the language of S6725A.  See the text of that bill here.

The new law provides that if the U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners at their prison address in the 2010 census, then state prison authorities must determine the pre-incarceration address of each prisoner, and report it to another state agency.  That other state agency will then calculate the population of each locality, under the assumption that each prisoner lives at his or her residence prior to being imprisoned.  If the prisoner lived outside New York state before being incarcerated, he or she won’t be counted at all, for purposes of New York state redistricting.

Because U.S. House and state legislative districts must have approximately equal populations, the result of this policy will be to decrease the population (for redistricting purposes) of a few low-population upstate counties that have tens of thousands of prisoners.  Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news and for providing the bill number.

Jeff Anderson, an independent candidate for U.S. House in Georgia’s 11th district this year, has announced that he will carry out a strong write-in campaign.  The state required him to collect 20,819 valid signatures.  He planned the petition two years in advance, and worked with diligence, and did collect 14,000 signatures.  That would have been enough to get him on the ballot in any U.S. House district in the nation, outside of North Carolina, Georgia, and perhaps a few overpopulated districts in Illinois and California.

Anderson’s decision to carry out a strong write-in campaign will help the ballot access reform movement in Georgia.  Elections officials dread strong write-in campaigns.  It costs more money and effort to tally write-in votes than to count votes for candidates whose names are printed on the ballot.  Anderson’s webpage is www.jeffanderson2010.com.  Thanks to Mary Norwood for this news.

On August 11, the Nebraska Secretary of State determined that the Libertarian Party’s petition for party status has enough valid signatures, so the party can now nominate candidates by convention, and they will appear on the November ballot.