U.S. District Court Judge Raymond J. Dearie, a Reagan appointee, will hold another hearing in Credico v New York State Board of Elections on Tuesday, October 26, at 3 p.m.  This is the case over whether Randy Credico should be listed twice on the New York state ballot as a candidate for U.S. Senate.  Judge Dearie issued a 10-page memorandum on October 25 and found that New York state lacks any rational reason whatsover to treat Credico differently than someone who is the nominee of two qualified parties.  But he stayed his own order until the October 26 hearing.

The memo says that printing Credico’s name on the ballot only once is not a severe burden.  But it also says that the claimed state interest in not listing him in both columns (or rows, depending on whether one is talking of the New York city ballot or the ballot in the remainder of the state) is non-existent.  The memo says the two parties each have their own line on the ballot anyway, so to refuse to list Credico in both lines is “absurd” and will cause voter confusion.

The purpose of the October 26 hearing is to see if it is true that it is impossible to give relief this election year, due to the fact that the election is only one week away.

A University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, released October 25, shows these results for Governor:  Republican Rick Perry 50%, Democrat Bill White 40%, Libertarian Kathie Glass 8%, Green Party nominee Deb Shafto 2%.  There are no undecideds, because if a respondent first said “Undecided”, the pollster then encouraged the respondent to say which way he or she is leaning.

The poll has the results of all the partisan executive statewide posts, showing Libertarians in some statewide races at 12%, even though all these races have a Democrat and a Republican in the race as well.  In the one executive statewide race with no Democrat running, the Green Party nominee is at 9%.  Thanks to Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for the link.

The Alaska Division of Elections says it will give a list of all declared write-in candidates to voters at the polls who ask for the list.  The Democratic Party says it may sue to prevent that.  See this story.

The Democrats say the Elections Division has never prepared such a list before.  In response, the state says this is the first year there has been a declared write-in candidate for any statewide office.  The procedure for filing as a write-in has only existed since 2000.  Democrats are taking this position because they are threatened by Lisa Murkowski’s write-in candidacy for U.S. Senate.  The Republican Party is also threatened by the Murkowski candidacy, but the Republican Party has not signaled any agreement with the Democratic Party on this matter, so far at least.

Other states post the list on the wall at the polling place location, or leave it on a table for anyone to see.  Such states include California, Florida, Maine, North Carolina and Texas and probably others.  There are 35 states that have a procedure by which a write-in candidate files a write-in declaration of candidacy, at general elections.