The next news from the U.S. Supreme Court on cases relating to election law will probably be on January 19, when the Court will probably say whether it will hear Doe v Reed, the case on whether petition signatures are private or not. The Court won’t release its opinion in the campaign finance case, Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, until January 20 at the earliest. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news about the next decision day.
On January 12, California held a special election to fill the vacant 72nd Assembly seat. The results: Republican Chris Norby 62.88%; Democrat John MacMurray 31.04%; Green Jane Rands 6.08%.
The last time this seat was up, in November 2008, the vote had been: Republican 54.80%; Democratic 45.20%.
A group in Vermont has formed the Vermont Independence Day Party, which believes that Vermont should secede from the United States. It plans to place nominees on the 2010 ballot for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and 7 State Senate seats. See this AP story. Thanks to Carter Momberger for the link.
The group did not use the organization method to qualify itself for the 2010 ballot, and it is too late to do that. That method requires showing that the party has town committees in at least ten towns. But, the group is free to qualify the party by petition for each of its individual candidates. They may have their label, “Vermont Independence Party” on the ballot if they wish. The story erroneously says they will be labeled “independent”. The story is also wrong when it says this is the first pro-secession party in any state. The Alaskan Independence Party has been continuously on the ballot in Alaska starting in 1974, although it didn’t become a qualified party until 1983. The Alaskan Independence Party was formed to work for secession, although its activists no longer talk about that goal.
On January 12, the city manager of Berkeley, California, sent a letter to the city manager of San Leandro, California, indicating that Berkeley will use Instant Runoff Voting for its own city elections this year. There will be no June primary. Instead, the only city election will be in November 2010. The letter was sent to San Leandro because San Leandro is pondering whether to also use IRV this year.
Berkeley and San Leandro are both charter cities, so they are free to decide this matter for their own elections. Cities in California that are not charter cities do not have that freedom. The voters of Berkeley voted in 2006 to use IRV whenever the vote-counting equipment was ready, and a few weeks ago the Secretary of State certified the vote-counting machines used in Alameda County for that purpose. Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro are all in Alameda County.
OMB Watch, January 12, has this analytical article about the recent 9th circuit decision from Washington state that said the Voting Rights Act is relevant to the issue of whether felons may vote. That decision is Farrakhan v Gregoire.
