Independent Political Report links to this Rasmussen Poll, which asks voters which party they would support for Congress in 2010 if their choices were limited to the Democratic Party nominee, the Republican Party nominee, and the nominee of a party called the “Tea Party.” There is no such political party. One wishes Rasmussen Polls had done a poll that asks voters to choose among parties that actually exist.
The results are: Democratic 36%, Tea Party 23%, Republican 18%, other or undecided 22%.
On December 7, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Christian Legal Society Chapter of University of California, Hastings College of the Law v Newton, 08-1371. This is not an election law case. But it is a freedom of association case, and all legal decisions in that area of the law affect political parties.
The Christian Legal Society is the only student organization ever denied recognition by Hastings College of the Law. Hastings requires recognized student groups to admit any student, regardless of that student’s beliefs. For example, the university guidelines say, “For example, the Hastings Democratic Caucus cannot bar students holding Republican political beliefs from becoming members or seeking leadership positions in the organization.”
The Christian Legal Society does not wish to admit as members any student who “advocates or unrepentantly engages in sexual conduct outside of marriage between a man and a woman.” Because the University will not recognize the group, it is barred from access to meeting space at the school, from participation in the annual Student Organizations Fair, from placing announcements in the law school newsletter and on bulletin boards, from sending fliers through law school mailboxes, and from being mentioned in the list of student organizations.
If the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the Christian Legal Society, the decision might also strengthen the ability of political parties to control their own nominations process.
The U.S. Supreme Court took a long time to decide whether to hear this case or not. It was on the Court’s conference seven times before the Court made its decision. Those conference dates were September 29, October 9, October 19, October 30, November 6, November 13, and December 4.
The New York city Board of Elections recently issued the official tally of election returns for Mayor and other city offices, from the November 3, 2009 election. See this link. It shows the vote for Mayor by Borough. Scroll down below totals given for each borough, to get to the city totals.
Apparently for the first time in a New York city election, the Board included a tally of each person who received write-in votes. New York state has a declared write-in declaration of candidacy procedure for president in the general election. However, it does not have a declared write-in candidacy procedure for any other office. Therefore, technically, every write-in (for office other than president) is valid, and every write-in ought to be tallied. But, that has not been done before.
The results show that the person who got the most write-ins for Mayor is Charles Montgomery Burns, the fictional character in the Homer Simpson series. He is Simpson’s boss. He was credited with 25 write-ins. Perhaps there was a small organized attempt to get write-ins for Mr. Burns, possibly as a satire on electing a wealthy person to be Mayor. See this story.
Georgia is holding a special election on January 5, 2010, to fill the vacant State Senate seat, 22nd district. Because it is a special election, all candidates may qualify without a petition, and parties don’t have nominees. However, the party label of each candidate is printed on the ballot. The candidates are a Libertarian, Taylor Bryant, and three Democrats (Hardie Davis, Harold Jones, and Sandra Scott).
This will be only the third time that any minor party candidate for State Senate has appeared on the ballot in a Georgia State Senate election, with the party label, in the last 67 years. There was also a Libertarian on the ballot for State Senate in 2002, Todd King; and a Libertarian on the ballot for State Senate in 1992, Larry Bolin. Other than that, there have been no minor party candidates for that office with the party label. This is because the petition hurdle, 5% of the number of registered voters, is virtually prohibitive in regular elections. And in special elections, it is only in the last few years that Georgia has permitted party labels.
In the November 2008 election for State Senate in the 22nd district, the vote had been: Democratic 79.5%; Republican 20.5%. The district is centered on Augusta.
Republicans and Democrats never need to petition in Georgia, because those two parties always poll over 20% of the vote for Governor, as well as polling 20% for President in the entire U.S. The law gives automatic ballot access for all offices to parties that meet either of those 20% hurdles. Libertarians must petition for legislative seats in regular elections, even though the party is on the ballot automatically for all statewide races, under a separate law that lets parties be on the ballot for statewide offices if they polled approximately 2% of the vote for any statewide race in the last election.
On December 4, a non-partisan group called The Know Campaign filed a lawsuit in Virginia state court, challenging a law that says certain voter registration data is private, and can only be distributed to candidates, political parties, and PACs. See this story. The case is The KnowCampaign v Rodrigues, city of Richmond circuit court, cl-09-005389-00.
The Know Campaign’s goal is to send letters to voters shortly before elections, motivating them to vote. The Know Campaign does this by telling voters which voters in their neighborhood voted in the previous election. The Know Campaign reasons that if people know that their neighbors will be learning (via such letters) who has voted, that people will be more motivated to vote, so as to avoid being embarrassed by such letters in the future. The Know Campaign carried out this type of activity in another state, and later research seemed to show the letter did cause higher voter turnout. The type of voter registration records at issue in this lawsuit is not only the list of registered voters, but the data that tells which voters voted.
In 1996, a federal court in Hawaii ruled in Donrey Media Group v Ikeda that if the government gives a list of the registered voters to parties and candidates, it must also give it on request to newspapers.
