The Daily Herald, a newspaper in Arlington Heights, Illinois, has this article about a Democratic Party-connected challenge to the Green Party’s candidate for U.S. House in the 14th district. The article notes that the Green candidate’s petition is being defended by Free and Equal, the ballot access organization created by Christina Tobin.
On November 20, California elections officials announced that the petition to recall Assemblymember Anthony Adams does not have enough valid signatures. The petition needed 35,825 valid signatures (12% of the vote cast in the district for Governor in 2006). Although recall proponents submitted 58,384, a random sample shows that only 24,579 signatures are valid, a validity rate of only 42.1%.
The recall effort was launched by a group that was angry at Adams for voting for certain tax increases earlier this year. Adams is a Republican representing the 59th district, which is mostly in San Bernardino County, and partly in Los Angeles County.
The National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws has existed since the 19th century. It proposes model laws to the state legislatures of all states. The Commission has been meeting this year to work on a proposed model law on how to stop presidential electors from voting for presidential or vice-presidential candidates who vote for someone in the electoral college who was not their party’s choice.
The next meeting is in Chicago, December 4 and December 5. It is at the Hotel Sax, 333 N. Dearborn St., and is open to the public. The meetings are Friday, Dec. 4, 9 a.m. thru 5 p.m., and Saturday, 8:30 a.m. thru 3 p.m. The original model bill has been modified since the last meeting. One of the most interesting revisions is to provide that if the presidential nominee of a party dies after November ballots are printed, but before the electoral college meets in mid-December, the electors must vote for their party’s vice-presidential nominee. If they don’t, they are deemed to have resigned and will be replaced by their alternate. The model law provides that states would elect alternate presidential electors to replace presidential electors who vote “disobediently.”
On November 13, a South Dakota Circuit Court Judge ruled that petition signatures are valid if the signer is not on the list of active registered voters, but is on the list of inactive voters. Inactive voters are those who once registered to vote, but whose registration is considered questionable because the post office reported that the voter had moved and that voter has not re-registered. The judge, Kathleen Trandahl, also ruled that petition sheets are valid even if the notary public who notarized that sheet makes errors in his or her notarization statement, such as putting an incorrect date on when the notary’s seal expires. The case is Trucano v Nelson, 32-cv-09-306. See this story.
It is possible the state will appeal. UPDATE: on November 20, the state decided not to appeal. The case arose because the state had rejected a referendum petition. The 2009 session of the legislature had passed a bill to ban smoking in bars and casinos. Opponents of that new law had then submitted a petition to call for a public vote, which will be held in November 2010.
Kent, Ohio, uses partisan city elections. At the November 3, 2009 election for Mayor, independent candidate Jerry Fiala and Democratic nominee Rick Hawksley ended up in a tie. On November 20, the election was resolved with a toss of a coin. See this story.
