Nebraska Democrats Lack Nominees for Three of the Five Statewide Races

Posted on by July 10, 2010
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Nebraska voters will choose elected officials for five partisan offices on November 2, 2010:  Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Treasurer, and Auditor.  For three of those five offices, the Democratic Party currently has no nominee.  No one ran in the May 11 Democratic primary for Attorney General or Auditor.  One Democrat, Mark Lakers, did run in Democratic primary for Governor, but he recently withdrew from the race.  See this story.

Democrats have the option of choosing nominees at the state convention on July 23-25.

No parties, other than the two major parties, are on the ballot now, although the Libertarian Party is petitioning.  That petition is due August 1 and requires 5,921 valid signatures.

Democratic National Committee Bylaws Committee Accepts Recommendations of Democratic Change Commission

Posted on by July 10, 2010
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The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the National Democratic Committee has voted to accept the recommendations of the Democratic Change Commission on timing of 2012 presidential primaries and caucuses.  Now the proposal will get a vote of the full Democratic Committee next month.  The main difference the proposal makes, relative to 2008, is that no January primaries or caucuses will be recognized.  In 2008, January primaries were held in New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida.

New York City Charter Revision Commission Issues Preliminary Recommendations for Election Law Changes

Posted on by July 9, 2010
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On July 9, the staff of the New York City Charter Revision Commission issued a 66-page report, making certain recomendations for changes in the city charter.  Some of the recommendations concern election law.

The Report recommends use of Instant Runoff Voting for partisan primaries for the three citywide offices.  The Report says that IRV should also be studied for partisan primaries for city council and borough president races.  The Report also recommends that the number of signatures for candidates to get on primary ballots, and also the number of signatures for getting on general election ballots, should be reduced by 50%.  These recommendations are in Part II.

The Report, in Part V, discusses the idea that New York city should use non-partisan elections, but makes no recommendation about that idea.  Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.

Minnesota Independence Party Gubernatorial Primary is More Unpredictable than Republican Primary

Posted on by July 9, 2010
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Minnesota has three ballot-qualified parties, all of which will choose their nominees on primary day, August 10.  On July 2, TPT, a public television station in Minnesota, sponsored intra-party gubernatorial debates.  See the one-hour broadcast here.

However, the TV station determined that only the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and the Independence Party, have significant intra-party contests for Governor.  So, TPT held a 25-minute debate between two leading candidates for the Independence Party nomination, as well as a 25-minute debate between three leading candidates for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor nomination.  The station determined that in the Republican primary, only one candidate has a strong campaign, so it did not hold a Republican debate, but instead broadcast a 10-minute news story about that one Republican.

The Independence Party gubernatorial debate was between Tom Horner, the candidate endorsed by the Independence Party leadership, and Rob Hahn.  However, the party has five candidates on its primary ballot for Governor.  The others are Phil Ratte, John Uldrich, and Rahn Workcuff.  It is very unusual for any minor party in the United States to have as many as five gubernatorial candidates on its primary ballot.  Probably the only other minor party ballot with more than two choices for any office this year is the Arizona Libertarian Party primary ballot for Governor, which has four candidates listed:  Ron Cavanaugh, Barry Hess, Bruce Olsen, and Alvin Yount.  The Arizona Libertarian Party web page has this link for anyone interested in learning about each of those candidates.

Riverside County, California, Told to Count 12,563 Late Postal Ballots

Posted on by July 9, 2010
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On July 9, California Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher ruled that Riverside County should count the 12,563 mail ballots that were not in the hands of county elections officials by 8 p.m. on June 8, 2010.  See this story.  The case is Riverside County Democratic Central Committee v Dunmore, ric-10-012986.

California election law says mail ballots cannot be counted unless the ballots are delivered to elections officials by the end of election day.  In the case of these Riverside County ballots, the voters had postally mailed them in time for normal delivery.  But county elections officials, who routinely stop by certain post offices to collect such ballots, did not visit the post office that actually had the ballots; instead they visited the wrong post office.  UPDATE:  see this more detailed article.  The Judge relied on part on a provision of the California Constitution, added in 2002, that says voters have a right to have their valid votes counted.  It says, “A voter who casts a vote in an election in accordance with the laws of this State shall have that vote counted.”