On October 11, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1396. It repeals sections of the Election Code that tell the Democratic Party who should be on its State Central Committee, and when and how county central committees elect members to the State Central Committee, and that members should be divided as equally as possible between men and women, and how to fill vacancies.

A similar bill, deregulating similar provisions for the Republican Party, had been signed into law in 2007.

Similar laws still exist in the California election law that relate to how the American Independent Party, and the Peace & Freedom Party, should be structured. Parties that qualified in the 1980’s and 1990’s have never had their rules in the Election Code, except that when they qualified, they were required to choose one of the organization schemes for one of the parties that did have rules in the Code. Those parties (Libertarian, Green, Natural Law, Reform) all chose the Peace & Freedom plan.

Maine and Nebraska laws let each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector, instead of using a winner-take-all system. On October 10, the Nebraska Republican State Central Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution asking the 2010 session of the Nebraska legislature to restore the winner-take-all system used in 48 states.

In 2008, Barack Obama carried the Nebraska district that is centered on the city of Omaha, making Nebraska the first state to split its electoral college vote between the Democratic nominee and the Republican nominee since 1916.

The November 3, 2009 New York city Mayoral ballot will include these eight candidates, in this ballot order: William C. Thompson (Dem., Working Families), Michael R. Bloomberg (Rep., Independence), Stephen Christopher (Conservative), Francisca Villar (Party for Socialism and Liberation), Dan Fein (Socialist Workers), Billy Talen (Green), Jimmy McMillan (Rent is Too High), Joseph Dobran (Libertarian).

Because New York city imposes a 15-letter limit on party labels, Villar’s ballot label is “Socialism & Lib.”

The 2005 mayoral race also had 8 candidates on the ballot. They were from the same parties as in 2009, except in 2005, the Party for Socialism and Liberation did not have a candidate (the party did not exist back then), and there was an independent candidate in 2005 with the label “Education.”

Two petitioning candidates for Mayor were challenged off the ballot. They were Robert Burck, “Naked Cowboy” and Alan Chusid, “Messianic.”

For the 2009 election, the other two citywide offices have fewer candidates. The Public Advocate race is a 5-way race, with these candidates: Bill de Blasio (Dem., Working Families), Alex Zablocki (Republican), William J. Lee (Conservative), Maura Deluca (Socialist Workers), and Jim Lesczynski (Libertarian).

The Comptroller race also has five candidates: John C. Liu (Democrat, Working Families), Joseph A. Mendola (Republican), Stuart Avrick (Conservative), Salim Ejaz (Rent is Too High), John Clifton (Libertarian).