The new British government has promised to hold a referendum on whether Great Britain should use the “alternative vote” method for House of Commons elections. That is another term for one version of Instant Runoff Voting. This poll shows that the idea is leading 59% to 32%, with the other 9% undecided. Thanks to Robb Richie for the link.
The Pacific Sun of Marin County, California, recommends a “No” vote on Proposition 14. See the recommendations here. The Pacific Sun prints 80,000 issues, and is the nation’s second-oldest alternative free weekly newspaper in the United States, second only to the Village Voice.
Also, the Bay Area Reporter, the largest publication in the San Francisco Bay Area that is intended primarily for gay readers, recommends a “No” vote. Proposition 14 is the top-two primary ballot measure.
The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina newspaper, The Sun News, has this story in its May 16 edition about the North Carolina First Party. The petition deadline is May 17, and the party needs 85,379 valid signatures. Even though the story says the party has 120 petitioners, the story also says the party only has 86,000 signatures, which will not be enough unless there is a super-human push this weekend.
However, under a State Board of Elections ruling issued a few years ago for the Libertarian Party, the signatures can be supplemented and turned in later this year, or even next year, and they will count for 2012. Also, it is very likely the party could win a lawsuit against the May 17 petition deadline. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mandel v Bradley, in 1977, that early petition deadlines are unconstitutional when virtually no group or candidate ever meets the requirement. No statewide independent except Ross Perot, and no party except the Libertarian and Reform Parties, has ever met the 2% North Carolina statewide petition requirement, and that requirement has existed since 1983. There is no important reason for the deadline to be in May, because North Carolina doesn’t give a primary to new parties anyway. The independent candidate petition deadline is June 10 and there is no practical reason why the two deadlines should differ.
On May 20, Thursday, at 2:30 pm, a North Carolina Superior Court will hear oral arguments in Brody v North Carolina State Board of Elections, 10cvs-3216. This is a case that raises an issue that has apparently never before been argued. It concerns whether an independent candidate should be required to submit a hefty petition for ballot access, in addition to a filing fee, if the independent candidate already proved he or she has a modicum of voter support based on results in the last election.
Mark Brody qualified for the November 2008 ballot as an independent candidate for the State House. He polled 30%. He is running for the same seat again this year. He is willing to pay the filing fee, but he is not willing to obtain 2,367 valid signatures from within his district, because he argues that a petition for him is redundant, because of his 9,184 votes in the November 2008 election.
All states have procedures for an independent candidate to get on the general election ballot for any partisan office (although two states, Washington and Hawaii, require independent candidates for most partisan offices to run in the first round and do well there first). No state except Georgia lets an independent candidate’s showing in one election count toward the independent getting on in a following election for the same office. Georgia says if an independent candidate wins, he or she is on the ballot automatically in the next election, but the candidate must pay the filing fee in both elections.
For those who may wish to attend the hearing, it is in room 6310 of the Mecklenburg County Courthouse in Charlotte. The lawsuit also challenges another North Carolina election law, which says that an independent candidate may not be identified on the November ballot as an independent candidate. Instead, he or she must have the label “Unaffiliated.” Similar lawsuits won in the Massachusetts Supreme Court and the Minnesota Supreme Court in the past.
U.S. Senator Robert Bennett of Utah has been running for re-election this year. However, no one may get on a primary ballot in that state if the person does not show 35% support at a party endorsements convention. Bennett failed to get that much support at last week’s Republican convention, and thus he cannot get on the June 22 primary ballot.
On May 16, CNN’s “State of the Union” public affairs TV show interviewed Bennett. Hostess Candy Crowley asked him, “When can we call you up and get an answer to the question of whether you’re going to run as an independent?” Bennett’s answer was, “As soon as I make up my mind, you will be the second to know.” Here is the transcript. Bennett was on in the second half of the show.
Utah requires an independent (for office other than President) to submit a petition by March 15. If Bennett decided to run for re-election as an independent, he would need to win a lawsuit against that deadline. Getting the signatures would be no problem if it weren’t for the deadline, because only 1,000 are needed. As noted in earlier posts about Bennett, five circuits have invalidated deadlines for non-presidential independents that are as early as the deadline for candidates filing in a primary, and only one circuit has upheld such a deadline. Also the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a 3-judge district court against an Arkansas deadline in April, when the Arkansas primary at the time was in May.
Utah also has a “sore loser” law (for office other than President), and Bennett would need to overcome that law also. Although “sore loser” laws are constitutional for people who have lost a primary, there is no precedent on Utah’s type of sore loser law, which even applies to someone who has not run in a primary, but merely failed to get enough support at a preliminary party meeting.
Bennett is also free to be a declared write-in candidate in November. Elections officials would be horrified at the thought, however; write-in votes cost far more time and money to count than votes cast for someone on the ballot. Someone as popular as Bennett would, if he campaigned hard, undoubtedly receive tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of write-in votes. Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.
