On October 1, U.S. District Court Judge William Smith heard arguments in Fontes v City of Central Falls, Rhode Island. See this story. The issue is whether the city can disqualify signatures on a petition if the same voter had also signed for another candidate for the same office. Petition forms do not ask the voter to indicate a date next to his or her signature, so the first candidate who files gets to count the signatures of voters who sign two petitions. In this particular case, the plaintiff-candidate, Hipolito Fontes, says when he was collecting signatures, he was followed by canvassers for his only opponent, the incumbent Mayor, and those canvassers asked the same voters to also sign the Mayor’s petitions.

On the first day that petitions could be submitted, Fontes says, the Board of Elections allowed the Mayor to submit his petitions first by letting him into the office before the office was officially open. Fontes needed 200 valid signatures but was told he only had 197 valid. The judge promised a decision by October 9.

Professor James Bennett’s new book, “Not Invited to the Party: How the Demopublicans Have Rigged the System and Left Independents Out in the Cold” will be released on October 13, 2009. It is hardcover, 211 pages, and will sell for $24.50.

Professor Bennett is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and has published at least 18 other books. He wrote an earlier version of “Not Invited to the Party”, which was released a year ago. However, that book was only 141 pages and sold for $99, so it didn’t get the attention that the new version will receive. Last year’s version was “Stifling Political Competition: How Government Has Rigged the System to Benefit Demopublicans and Exclude Third Parties.”

On October 3, Brett McClafferty, who is age 21, said he will drop his lawsuit to overturn a city ordinance that requires candidates to be at least age 23 to be on the City Council. He had filed it on September 24, 2009. The Streetsboro, Ohio election is on November 3, 2009, and early voting had already started by the time of the first hearing in the case. U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Lioi had already ruled she would not stop early voting. The case was McClafferty v Portage County Board of Elections. See this story. Thanks to Carter Momberger for the link.