European political parties have traditionally chosen their nominees in party meetings, but in 2009, the British Conservative Party has been experimenting with using primaries to choose nominees. The party does this by mailing a ballot, at its own expense, to all the voters of the constituency or the city that is holding the election. This British blog on politics suggests that the Conservative primary to choose a Mayoral candidate in Bedford was not considered a success, and that perhaps the party may discard the idea.

On October 15, the forces who placed a Referendum petition on the Washington state ballot announced that they are asking the full 9th circuit to rehear Doe v Reed. The issue is whether the names and addresses of people who sign petitions should be released to the public. Earlier in the day on October 15, a 3-judge panel of the 9th circuit had given the Secretary of State permission to release the names. Any decision of a 3-judge panel of any U.S. Court of Appeals may be appealed to all the full-time judges of any Circuit. At that point, all the full-time judges vote on whether to rehear the case. See this story.

The U.S. Senate expects to vote on S.1390 on Tuesday, October 20. This is the Defense Authorization Bill, and it includes the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act. It requires states to mail absentee ballots (in federal elections) to overseas absentee voters no later than 45 days before the general election. Assuming the bill is signed into law, it will almost certainly require the states that now use September primaries to move them to August or an earlier month.

The bill passed the Senate once already, but it needs another Senate vote because it has had amendments made since the first Senate vote.