This article discusses a Canadian election law that makes it illegal to broadcast election returns during national elections until all the polls are closed in the westernmost part of Canada. With the advent of new methods of communication, the ban no longer works and is largely unenforced. Canada has six time zones, and ballots from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick are mostly counted while the polls are still open in British Columbia and Yukon.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed four bills last month that would have inhibited the initiative process in some way. A previous blog post of October 12 said that he had vetoed SB 34, to make it illegal to pay initiative circulators on a per-signature basis. However, that blog post failed to mention three other vetoed bills: AB 6 would have required organizations that hire circulators to register with the Secretary of State and to pay an unspecified fee. AB 436 would have raised the filing fee for anyone to file a proposed initiative with the Attorney General, from $200, to $2,000. And AB 1068 would have it made it illegal for companies that hire paid circulators to write into the contract a provision saying no circulator would be paid unless the initiative qualified for the ballot.
The Whig Party, a new party with a special concern for the problems of veterans, had a candidate on the New Jersey ballot last week for Assembly, 14th district. The candidate, Gene Baldassari, polled 1.22% of the vote, according to unofficial returns.
The unofficial vote totals for each candidate for New Jersey Governor from last week’s election are:
Republican (Chris Christie) 1,004,219
Democratic (Jon Corzine) 962,130
independent (Chris Daggett) 120,821
Libertarian (Ken Kaplan) 4,246
Socialist (Greg Pason) 1,908
Other independents: Gary Steele 2,798; Jason Cullen 2,593; Kostas Petris 2,397; David Meiswinkle 2,242; Gary Stein 1,513; Joshua Leinsdorf 919; Alvin Lindsay 695.
Burlington County reported 108 write-ins for Governor. Generally, New Jersey counties don’t bother to mention how many write-in votes were received, much less reveal who received those write-ins. The Burlington County report is unusual. The only known write-in candidate who campaigned was Angela Lariscy, the Socialist Workers Party candidate.
Monmouth County hasn’t reported any tentative totals yet, so when its vote is available, all these totals will be larger.
According to this news story, Hawaii’s Elections Chief plans to ask the federal government for a waiver (for 2010 only) of the new federal law that requires states to mail foreign absentee ballots at least 45 days before an election. Hawaii has the latest Congressional primary in the nation, and it is obvious that Hawaii can’t mail out its foreign absentee ballots in 2010 at least 45 days before the general election, unless it moves that primary to an earlier date.
Hawaii requires new political parties to submit their petitions at least 5 months before the primary, so an earlier primary in Hawaii will automatically mean an earlier deadline for parties to qualify themselves. However, a good case can be made that Hawaii has no strong interest in requiring such petitions so far in advance of the primary. Hawaii is one of the states that requires newly-qualifying parties to nominate by primary. The state is free to let newly-qualifying parties nominate by convention, as most states do. Alternatively, even if Hawaii wants to continue requiring newly-qualifying parties to nominate by primary, it really isn’t necessary to put the petition deadline five months before that primary. No other state except California requires so much lead time.
