The July 30 Buffalo News has this confusing story, which seems to say that if Carl Paladino loses the New York Republican gubernatorial primary on September 14, he will still be listed on the November ballot as the nominee of his new Taxpayers Party. But, if he loses the Republican primary, he would not campaign in the general election.
The Michigan Tea Party (the ballot-qualified party), which most observers feel is an insincere party artificially created by Democrats, recently nominated 23 candidates. But two of them will not appear on the ballot because they are under age 21. The Michigan Constitution requires legislators to be age 21 or older. See this story.
One of the candidates who is being removed from the ballot was running in the 13th State Senate district. This is one of the most closely-balanced State Senate districts in Michigan. Last time voters chose a State Senator in this district, in 2006, the vote for the two major parties had been: Republican 57,204; Democratic 56,484. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On July 29, a U.S. District Court handling the case Judge v Quinn ruled that any candidate for U.S. Senate in the November 2010 election for the full Illinios term should also automatically be on the ballot for the special 2-month term that is also on the November ballot. See this story.
This seems peculiar, but it spares any of the parties from the task of choosing their own nominee for the 2-month term, so the decision will probably will go unchallenged.
Ohio elects its judges in partisan elections, but there are no party labels on the general election ballot for candidates for judge. On July 28, some Ohio judges, and others, filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the state must print party labels on general election ballots. Here is the complaint. The case is Ohio Council of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees v Brunner, 1:10-cv-504, southern district.
Ohio uses partisan primaries to determine who each party nominates for judge, so the partisan affiliation of candidates for judge is obvious at the primary elections. It is only the general election at which party labels are not present. Ohio is the only state with a system with that characteristic. Michigan is somewhat similar. In Michigan, party conventions nominate candidates for State Supreme Court Justice, and then the voters elect them on a November ballot which also lacks party labels.
The lawsuit also attacks rules that make it impossible for candidates for judge to identify their party identification “after the day of the primary.”
On July 28, Robert J. Healey and eleven other voters filed a lawsuit in federal court, to stop the use of a straight-ticket device in Rhode Island. Healey is on the ballot as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor in November, with the partisan label “Cool Moose Party.” Because his party is not ballot-qualified (although it was in the past) it won’t have a straight-ticket device on the November ballot. Only the Democratic, Moderate and Republican Parties will have such a device. The lawsuit charges that the straight-ticket device, as used in Rhode Island, is discriminatory.
The lawsuit also argues that the straight-ticket device does not work well with the kind of vote-counting system Rhode Island uses. When a voter pushes the straight-ticket button, the face of the ballot (on a computer screen) does not make it obvious to the voter whom he or she has just voted for. Also it causes many voters to ignore the parts of the ballot that contain ballot questions and non-partisan races. The case is Healey v State of Rhode Island, cv-10-316S. It has a hearing on August 5 at 9 a.m.
