Ralph Nader has sent this letter to President Obama, acknowledging that Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are calling for free and fair elections in Egypt, and pointing out the hypocrisy, because the United States does not let residents of Washington, D.C., vote for members of Congress. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link.
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell has tentatively set a hearing date of 10:30 a.m. on March 4 for oral arguments in Libertarian Party v District of Columbia Board of Elections, 09-cv-1676. This is the case in which the party and Bob Barr argue that the U.S. Constitution requires that all valid votes must be counted, including write-in votes for presidential candidates who file a declaration of write-in candidacy. In 1975 the D.C. Appeals Court had ruled in Kamins v Board of Elections that the board must print write-in space on general election ballots for president, and must count those votes. The D.C. Board of Elections has interpreted that to mean that all it must do is count the total number of write-ins cast for President, without specifying how many write-in votes any particular candidate received, even if he or she had filed a declaration of write-in candidacy.
The case was filed in 2009 in the D.C. Court system, and the Board of Elections had it transferred to federal court. The first U.S. District Court Judge who had the case asked the U.S. Justice Department if it wished to express an opinion, but the Justice Department declined. Recently the case was transferred to Judge Howell, who is new to the federal bench.
Michael Chamness, who is on the ballot in this month’s special California State Senate election in Los Angeles County, has this op-ed in the Daily Breeze, explaining some of the problems for voters caused by the new top-two system.
Michael Chamness, who is on the ballot in this month’s special California State Senate election in Los Angeles County, has this op-ed in the Daily Breeze, explaining some of the problems for voters caused by the new top-two system.
In 2010, a new party called the Tea Party qualified for the Florida ballot. Many of the Tea Party nominees had their ballot positions challenged in lawsuits filed by various Republicans. For a summary of these lawsuits, see this web page of “Central Florida Republicans.” Most of these lawsuits have been dismissed. On February 1, the lawsuit Hensarling v Foley, which had been pending in state Circuit Court in the Orange-Osceola district, was dismissed before the plaintiffs were able to engage in discovery. See this story. The defendant, Jon Foley, had appeared on the November 2, 2010 ballot as the Tea Party nominee for State House, 41st district.
