Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this link to the transcript of the February 15 debate in New York city, “The two-party system is making America Ungovernable”. Debating the affirmative were David Brooks and Arianna Huffington. Debating the negative were Zev Chafets and P. J. O’Rourke.

None of the debaters mentioned ballot access laws. Zev Chafets, who is based in Israel, seems unaware of any ballot access problem in the United States. On page 38 he says, “Anybody can join a party in this country. Anybody could run for office in this country.” The truth is, in Georgia, if one is not a Republican or a Democrat, one cannot run for U.S. House of Representatives in a regularly-scheduled election. Many have tried to get on the ballot, all have failed, since the law was toughened in 1964.

On February 22, the West Virginia House Rules Committee delayed HB 2378, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. That bill had passed the Judiciary Committee on February 17. See this story.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether or not to hear the Illinois U.S. Senate special election cases at its conference on February 18, it made no decision. The two cases will be considered again at the February 25 conference. The two cases are Burris v Judge, 10-367, and Quinn v Judge, 10-821. They concern whether the 7th circuit was right or wrong to order Illinois to hold a special U.S. Senate election on November 2, 2010, for the remaining two months of the Class III seat. Also, they concern whether it was right or wrong for the 7th circuit to limit ballot access in that special election to only the candidates whose names were already on the November ballot for the full term-election.

Former U.S. Senator Roland Burris had been appointed to that seat. The 7th Circuit decision forced him to vacate that seat in November 2010, and gave him no opportunity to run to fill the remainder of that term. Although the two-month term was short, Congress met during those two months and actually made some important decisions. The winner of the two-month term was Republican nominee Mark Kirk, who also won the 6-year term.