On September 21, the town of Flowery Branch, Georgia, held a special election to fill a vacancy on the city council. The election is non-partisan. Libertarian Party member Amanda Swafford defeated her only opponent by a two-to-one margin. See this story. Flowery Branch is in Hall County, in northern Georgia near Gainesville.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the Green Party of Connecticut and the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for more time to file its cert petition in Green Party of Connecticut v Lenge. This is the case that challenges Connecticut’s discriminatory public funding law. The request has been approved, and the brief is now due on December 10, 2010.
The Republican Party of West Virginia, which had earlier filed a lawsuit demanding that the special U.S. Senate election be on a separate ballot than the ballot for every other office, now says it would be satisfied if the straight-ticket device were removed from the ballot. See this story.
The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the Virginia State Board of Elections to respond in Lux v Rodrigues, 10A298. This is the case in which independent candidate Herb Lux, running for Congress, challenges the state law that says circulators cannot work if they don’t live in the district. The state’s response is due Monday, September 27.
According to this story, Illinois elections officials have made absentee ballots available, but are asking voters not to use them, because the final ballot may have a different set of candidates. First, as the story mentions, the Constitution Party statewide slate may be added to the ballot if the party wins in court. The hearing is Friday, September 24.
Also, in one State Senate race, the Illinois Supreme Court will soon decide whether the Republican nominee, Steve Rauschenberger, should be removed from the ballot. See this story. The hearing is Wednesday, September 22. Democrats want to remove Rauschenberger from the ballot because he voted in a Democratic primary for local office in 2009. The story’s use of the term “open primary” doesn’t mean a “top-two” system. It is the Illinois term for the type of open primary in which the voter need not choose a primary ballot in public, but rather decides in the secrecy of the voting booth which party primary to choose. Illinois already has an open primary.
