On October 7, a Commonwealth Court heard In re Nomination Petition of Carl Stevenson again.  This is the case over whether an independent candidate for the legislature should be on the ballot.  The first time this case had been in Commonwealth Court, the Commonwealth Court Judge had ruled that signatures collected by someone who lives outside the district are invalid.  Then the State Supreme Court had ruled that the Commonwealth Court should look at the petition again, and this time check all the signatures, even those collected by the out-of-district circulators.

Another Commonwealth Court judge had the case this time, and he ruled that signatures by out-of-district circulators are valid.  But then, having looked at all signatures, he ruled that the candidate still doesn’t have enough signatures.  See this story.

Last month, the Conservative and Working Families Party of New York state filed a federal lawsuit, challenging the state’s policy on counting ballots when a voter casts two votes for a single office, and both votes are for the same candidate.  The state says it will count such ballots as votes for the party with the higher position on the ballot.  For example, if a candidate is the nominee of the Republican Party and the Conservative Party, and a voter votes for that candidate under both party lines, only the Republican vote would count.

The lawsuit does not say what the state should do in that situation, but it argues that the state’s policy is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

On September 29, the Independence Party of New York city filed an amicus curiae brief on the side of the Conservative and Working Families Party.  The state officers of the Independence Party seem not to have taken a position on the lawsuit.  The officers of the Independence Party of New York city and the officers of the statewide Independence Party are somewhat hostile to each other.

Over half the states in which major party gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates have debated each other have included at least one minor party or independent candidate in those debates.  However, this year in California, no statewide candidate debates between the major party nominees have included any minor party or independent candidates.

On October 6, the California minor party gubernatorial candidates held a press conference in Sacramento, to publicize the idea that California is behind the remainder of the country.  The event was sponsored by Free & Equal.  See this Sacramento Bee story.

The November 1 print edition of Ballot Access News will list the states and debates that have been inclusive, for statewide office.