The July 21 Sacramento Bee has this op-ed by Kris Novoselic and Rob Richie, advocating that states and other units of government use either proportional representation, or cumulative voting, or instant runoff voting, instead of the “winner-take-all” system so prevalent in the U.S.
On July 21, independent gubernatorial candidate Gatewood Galbraith submitted his ballot access petition in Kentucky. See this story. The only other minor party or independent candidate petition circulating in this year’s Kentucky state elections is the Libertarian Party petition for Ken Moellman for State Treasurer, which is still being worked on. Kentucky petitions are due in early August 2011.
All four states that have gubernatorial elections this year will have independent or minor party candidates in those elections. The states are Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Egypt will use the type of proportional representation pioneered by West Germany, in the upcoming September 2011 Parliamentary elections. See this story. Parties that poll at least one-half of 1% of the total vote will be represented in the lower house. The age at which candidates are eligible to run has been lowered from 30 to 25.
According to this story in the Providence Journal, the Rhode Island State Board of Elections has redesigned the voter registration form, so that the form no longer lists the qualified parties. Instead the voter will be asked to write-in his or her party on a blank line on the petition form.
Rhode Island has three qualified parties, Democratic, Republican, and Moderate. The Moderate Party has criticized the new forms, because not listing the qualified parties has a disproportionate effect on the Moderate Party. Many, if not most, voters don’t know that the Moderate Party is a ballot-qualified party. The Board says the new forms will save money, because under the old policy, every time a new party qualified, the forms had to be reprinted. Thanks to Ken Block for the link.
On July 20, a U.S. District Court struck down part of Maine’s law on public funding of candidates for state office. Specifically, the decision eliminates extra public funding for publicly-funded candidates who have privately-funded opponents with a great deal of resources. The decision was no surprise, because the U.S. Supreme Court had issued a similar decision in an Arizona case last month. The Maine case is Cushing v McKee, 1:10-cv-330. See this story.
