On September 21, the Washington, D.C., city council passed the National Popular Vote Plan. It still needs the signature of the Mayor. Assuming the Mayor signs it, the bill will become law. Six states have also passed the National Popular Vote Plan, but of course it doesn’t take effect until jurisdictions containing a majority of the electoral college have passed it. The six states that have passed it are Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, and Massachusetts.
The September 20 issue of The Militant, weekly newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party, has this editorial, condemning the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that finds no privacy rights for people who sign petitions to place questions, candidates, or parties on the ballot. The decision, Doe v Reed, had been issued on June 24. The decision does say that if a group can show that it has a special need for privacy, it can make that argument and may possibly win an exception.
The Socialist Workers Party itself won a decision in 1982 in the U.S. Supreme Court, giving it protection against revealing the names and addresses of people who contribute money to the party. The decision also says the party need not report how it spends its campaign contributions, because if it did so, that would reveal the names and addresses of its employees.
The Socialist Workers Party chose not to submit an amicus curiae brief in Doe v Reed.
All the states that are holding partisan state legislative races this year have at least one minor party or independent legislative candidate on the November ballot. States that have no minor party candidates (with a party label), but which do have at least one independent, are Georgia, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Lawsuits challenging the ballot access laws for minor parties are pending in North Dakota and Tennessee.
States that have no independent candidates for the legislature on the ballot, but which do have minor party legislative nominees on the ballot, are Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, and New Mexico.
It appears that there are more independent candidates on the ballot for state legislature, around the nation, this year, than at any time in at least ten years, although the final figures are still not exact.
Natasha Pettigrew, age 30, was struck by a car while bicycling on Sunday, September 19. She died from her injuries shortly aftewards. See this story. She was the Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate in Maryland. She had been training for a triathlon.
Thirty-five states have U.S. Senate races this year. Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race has the most candidates on the ballot. There are nominees from the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and Reform Parties, plus eight independent candidates.
Magellan Strategies released a poll of the Louisiana U.S. Senate race, and included all four party nominees, and three of the independent candidates. The results: Republican incumbent David Vitter 51.9%, Democrat Charlie Melancon 33.7%, Libertarian Randall Hayes 2.1%, Reform Party nominee .6%, all the listed independent candidates combined 2.2%, undecided and other 9.5%. The poll has a breakdown of voter support for the various candidates, according to the party membership of the voter.
