David Zuckerman, a Vermont state legislator who was elected only as a Progressive, is considering running for Lieutenant Governor in 2010 and seeking both the Progressive Party nomination and the Democratic Party nomination. In 2008, the vote for Lieutenant Governor in the general election had been Republican 55.0%, Democratic 39.1%, Progressive 4.5%, Liberty Union 1.2%. Zuckerman ponders aloud in the Progressive Party’s blog at this link.
On September 28, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously upheld Georgia’s use of electronic vote-counting machines that don’t leave any paper trail or other audit trail. The case is Favorito v Handel, S09A1367. The decision, which is only eleven pages long, is here.
The lower court had not permitted a trial, so the case was decided with virtually no evidence on either side. The Georgia Supreme Court expended very little effort on its decision. It is mostly quotations from other courts from other states that also ruled nothing in any Constitution protects the right of voters to vote using methods that provide an audit trail. The Court also said, on page 9, “The undisputed evidence shows that the touch-screen machines accurately record each vote when they are ‘properly operated’, which is odd, since the plaintiffs were never given an opportunity to present evidence.
The New York Times published this story on September 27, about the state law that requires run-off primaries in New York city, if the person who placed first in the first primary failed to receive at least 40% of the vote. The article predicts that fewer than 10% of registered Democrats will vote in the September 29 run-off primary for Public Advocate, yet the run-off will cost $15,000,000 in taxpayer funds. Even though the article is moderately long, it does not mention the idea that the city use Instant Runoff Voting. UPDATE: the article does mention IRV toward the end.
According to this story by Elizabeth Benjamin in the New York Daily News, President Obama is likely to be neutral in the November 2009 election for Mayor of New York city. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for the link. Mayor Mike Bloomberg is a registered independent, with the nomination of the Republican Party and the Independence Party. Bill Thompson is the Democratic nominee.
Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed filed a brief with the 9th circuit on September 28, in the lawsuit John Doe #1 v Reed, 09-35818. This is the case over whether the Constitution requires that signatures on petitions be considered private, not public information. A U.S. District Court judge had ruled on September 10 in favor of secrecy, and enjoined the Secretary of State from releasing the names and addresses of signers of the petition to require a public vote on the civil unions law passed earlier this year by the legislature. Supporters of the law had wanted to post the names and addresses of the petition signers on the internet.
