In November 2008, voters in Stephenson County, Illinois, elected an independent candidate to the County Board from district K. He was George Kinney, and he defeated his only opponent, the Republican nominee, by a margin of 52.4% to 47.6%. Board members have four year terms. Kinney died on January 31, 2011. Stephenson County provides that when a board member dies, there is no special election. Instead, the party of the deceased nominee chooses a replacement. However, Kinney was an independent, so the Board isn’t sure how to proceed. See this story.

Michael Peroutka, the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee in 2004, recently was the guest speaker at a Republican Party Club in his home state of Maryland, according to this news story. Peroutka was also the vice-presidential nominee in 2008 of the Montana Constitution Party. The Montana Constitution Party listed Ron Paul for president in the November 2008 election, with Peroutka as the vice-presidential nominee. That ticket received 2.17% of the Montana presidential vote, even though Paul did not desire to be on the Montana ballot and was nominated against his own wishes.

The Montana Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill, HB 91, which has already passed the House, provides that presidential candidates may withdraw their names from the November ballot. This provision was placed in the bill so that a repeat of what happened in 2008 will not recur.

Indiana representative Dan Stevenson (D-Highland) has introduced HB 1139. It would convert Indiana’s open primary into the kind of open primary in which the primary voter need not publicly disclose which party’s primary is being used. Currently, a primary voter may choose any party’s primary ballot, but must make the choice publicly. The bill would give each primary voter the chance to decide, in the privacy of the voting booth, which party’s primary to use.