This blog post is being written at 12:30 p.m., Thursday, September 8. It has been more than 24 hours since U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley enjoined the Ohio ballot access law for newly-qualifying parties, and no mainstream news media in Ohio (or anywhere else) has yet mentioned the decision.
On September 7, Carl Lewis, the Democratic nominee for New Jersey State Senate who is being kept off the November 7, 2011 ballot, asked the 3rd circuit to put him on the ballot. The case is Lewis v Guadagno, 11-3401.
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.
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.
