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.
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 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.
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.”
On July 7, a wealthy Republican candidate for Governor of Florida filed a lawsuit against the part of Florida public funding that provides extra public funds for candidates who have opponents with a great deal of private funding. Florida has had public funding for gubernatorial candidates since 1998. The Florida law says that if a publicly funded candidate has an opponent who spends more than $24,900,000, then the publicly-funded candidate may receive extra public funds. Specifically, the publicly-funded candidate will receive extra funding that equals that amount the privately-funded candidate spends in excess of $24,900,000.
The case is Scott v Roberts, U.S. District Court, northern district, 4:10-cv-283. Similar lawsuits are pending in Arizona and Connecticut. In the Arizona case, the 9th circuit had upheld the extra public funding, but then the U.S. Supreme Court had stayed the order of the 9th circuit and will probably hear the case next term. In the Connecticut case, the U.S. District Court had invalidated the provision for extra public funding and the state’s appeal is pending in the 2nd circuit. Here is a story about the Florida lawsuit.
