On June 22, California held a special election to fill the vacant State Senate seat in the 15th district.  The seat is vacant because former State Senator Abel Maldonado resigned to become Lieutenant Governor.

The vote:  Sam Blakeslee, Republican, 64,676, 49.71%; John Laird, Democrat, 53,639, 41.23%; Jim Fitzgerald, independent, 7,936, 6.10%; Mark Hinkle, Libertarian, 3,848, 2.96%.

Because no one polled 50%, there will be a run-off in August.  Because California uses blanket primary rules for its special legislative and congressional elections, all four candidates who ran in June 22 will again run in August.

Blakeslee only missed being elected outright on June 22 by 373 votes.  It is likely there are still some provisional ballots remaining to be counted.

On June 22, the Utah Supreme Court unanimously ruled that electronic signatures on petitions are valid.  The decision is Anderson v Bell, 20100237.  It is 15 pages.

As a result, the plaintiff, Farley Anderson, will now appear on the Utah ballot in November as an independent candidate for Governor.  Anderson had argued in the alternative that if electronic signatures are not valid, that the March petition deadline for independent candidates (for office other than President)  is unconstitutionally early.  That argument, if successful, would have permitted him to go get more old-fashioned signatures.  But the Court didn’t decide that issue; there was no need, given the outcome on the validity of his original petition.

The electronic signatures were gathered on Anderson’s campaign web page.

Mary Norwood is an independent candidate for President of the Fulton County, Georgia Commission.  She needs approximately 22,000 signatures by July 13.

When she began petitioning, she was told in writing that she could photocopy her own petition forms, instead of simply using government-furnished petition blanks.  She was also told that her forms could have “Fulton County” pre-printed in the blank that asks for the jurisdiction.

After her volunteers had collected 8,000 signatures using those forms, she was told that her petition sheets are not valid, and that each voter must in his or her own hand-writing write the word “Fulton County” next to that voter’s signature.  On June 21 she filed a lawsuit in state court to recover the 8,000 signatures.  She has hired paid circulators and they are using the government-printed forms.  See this story.  Her lawsuit is Norwood v Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, 2010-cv-18725.  Here is her Complaint and here is the Motion for an Emergency Hearing.  UPDATE:  see this story in the Atlanta Progressive News of June 24.