Supporters of Instant Runoff Voting launched a statewide initiative in Massachusetts on September 11. The proposed initiative would provide that IRV would be used in primaries and general elections, for all partisan federal and state office except President. The group only has until November 18 to submit approximately 66,594 valid signatures. It hopes to sign up 5,000 volunteers who will pledge to collect 20 signatures each. See the webpage here.
The Mississippi Republican Party, and the Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hosemann, have been backing a proposed initiative to ask the voters if voters at the polls should be required to show govenment photo-ID. However, according to this story, the petition has not been making enough progress to qualify for the 2010 ballot. But, the drive can continue and possibly use the same signatures, plus many more additional signatures, to get on the 2011 ballot. Thanks to BallotBoxNews for the link.
On September 18, the New York Supreme Court, Suffolk County, won its lawsuit to expel a mass entry into the party by members of four organizations that represent Long Island police, especially the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association. New York state law already gives parties the ability to cancel the enrollment of registered members of the party who are not in sympathy with the principles of the party. In this particular case, Walsh v Abramowitz, 31670-09, that law was applied. The Court determined that a mass entry into the party had been made by police for the purposing of defeating the Suffolk County Sheriff for re-election. The Suffolk County Sheriff is an enrolled Conservative, and police were angry at him because of a dispute over whether police, or sheriffs, should have the job of patrolling the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news. As a result of the decision, ballots cast in the Conservative Party primary on Septemer 15, 2009 by the members who have now been expelled, will not be counted. Here is the 8-page decision.
The USA Today for September 23 has this op-ed in favor of Instant Runoff Voting, authored by Blair Bobier of New America Foundation.
On September 22, the Arizona Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of the city of Phoenix, in Jones v Paniagua. The issue is how many signatures are needed for a city referendum. The law says the number of signatures must be 10% of the vote cast in the last city election. But the uncertainty involved knowing which was the last city election, the 2007 first round (which had a high turnout and included the Mayor’s race), or the 2007 second round (which just had contests in some city council districts, plus a citywide ballot measure), which had a far lower turnout. The State Court of Appeals had ruled in favor of the second round, which meant far fewer signatures for referenda this year.
