The Oregon Secretary of State plans to give permission for Oregon counties to use 3-letter abbreviations for political parties, instead of the normal practice of printing the full name of parties. See this story.
It is likely there will be litigation over this. The story quotes an opponent of the idea, as saying that abbreviations are inherently discriminatory, because virtually all voters know what “DEM” and “REP” means, but few voters will know that “PGP” means Green Party.
This New York Times article of June 9, about the passage of California’s Proposition 14, acknowledges the idea that California general election ballot access is now draconian for minor party and independent candidates.
On election night, when most of the votes tallied and publicly announced were absentee votes, California’s Proposition 14 had 60.5% as of 9 p.m., and 59.5% as of 11 p.m. But Wednesday morning, it stands at 54.2%.
This almost certainly means that people who voted at the polls on June 8 defeated Proposition 14. Over half the votes were cast before election day, so the votes of people who voted on election day are outnumbered by the people who voted during the period May 10-June 7.
The reason the people who voted on election day were substantially less favorable to Proposition 14 is that the campaign against Proposition 14 didn’t really come to fruition until the last week before the election.
The closest statewide contest in California for any of the six parties is the Peace & Freedom Party’s gubernatorial contest. Carlos Alvarez, who is associated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, has a slight lead over Stewart Alexander, who is associated with the Socialist Party. Alvarez has 43.0%; Alexander has 42.5%. A third candidate, Mohammad Arif, has 14.5%.
In the American Independent Party primary, there were contests for both Governor and U.S. Senator between persons associated with the faction of the AIP that is loyal to the national Constitution Party, and persons associated with the faction that nominated Alan Keyes for president last year. Each faction is winning one of those primaries. The gubernatorial primary results are Chelene Nightingale with 58.7% and Markham Robinson with 41.3%. But the U.S. Senate race shows Edward Noonan with 40.5% and Don Grundmann with 34.2%, and a third candidate associated with neither faction, Al Salehi, 25.0%.
In the Green Party contested gubernatorial primary, Laura Wells is winning over S. Deacon Alexander by a margin of four to one.
Although the Louisiana legislature is expected to give final approval to return the state’s congressional elections to the system used 1998-2006, it is likely that the bill won’t take effect until 2011. See this story.
The system used 1998-2006 calls for the first election to be in November, with all candidates on a single ballot. If no one gets 50%, there is a run-off in December. Thanks to Steve Rankin for the link.
