On August 24, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the case State ex rel Quinn v Lorain County Board of Elections, 2011-1124. The case had been filed by an independent candidate for Mayor of Elyria, a city which uses partisan elections. The candidate, Tim Quinn, was kept off the general election ballot because he had voted in the primary. The election law does not say that independent candidates must not have voted in the primary. Sometimes Ohio election officials keep independent candidates off the ballot because they voted in the primary, and sometimes they don’t. It is very disappointing that the Supreme Court dismissed this case without even writing an opinion. See this story.

Matthew Dowd has this column in the Huffington Post on the chances of a powerful presidential candidate in 2012 who is not the nominee of either the Democratic or Republican Parties. The column says that if no one gets a majority in the Electoral College, and the U.S. House chooses the President, Republicans have an advantage. The piece says that Republicans virtually always carry more states. This is not correct. In 2008, Republicans only carried 22 states; in 1996, they only carried 19; in 1992, they only carried 18.

One must go back to 1976 to find an election at which the Democrats won, but the Republicans carried more states. In 1976, Gerald Ford carried 27 states but still lost the election. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link. The article originally appeared in the National Journal.

On September 13, Nevada elects a new member of Congress in the 2nd (northern) district. A Public Policy Polling poll released August 23 shows: Republican Mark Amodei 43%, Democrat Kate Marshall 42%, Independent American Party nominee Tim Fasano 3%, independent candidate Helmuth Lehmann 3%, undecided 8%. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.