St. Paul Opponents of Instant Runoff Voting Try to Invalidate Vote in Favor of IRV

Posted on by November 4, 2009
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On November 3, the voters of St. Paul voted in favor of using Instant Runoff Voting for future city elections. On November 4, opponents of IRV filed a lawsuit to overturn the election results. They claimed that supporters of IRV had said that President Barack Obama and the League of Women Voters supported the St. Paul measure, and that therefore the election should be overturned.

When President Obama was a State Senator, he supported IRV in the Illinois legislature. The League of Women Voters has supported IRV in other states. But, President Obama and the League of Women Voters didn’t specifically endorse the St. Paul measure. See this story.

Moderate Party Tries But Fails to Woo Former U.S. Attorney to be its Gubernatorial Candidate in 2010

Posted on by November 4, 2009
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On November 3, former U.S. Attorney Robert Corrente declined to become the Moderate Party’s candidate for Governor of Rhode Island in 2010. However, he did say he is willing to serve as chair of the party’s Ethics Policy Committee, and that he is thinking of changing his registration from “Republican” to “Moderate.” See this story. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.

Working Families Party Wins Two Seats on Bridgeport, Connecticut School Board

Posted on by November 4, 2009
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On November 3, the Working Families Party won two seats with its own nominees in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for the School Board. All local elections in Connecticut are partisan elections. Five seats were up, but parties were only permitted to run a maximum of three candidates. This law is meant to guarantee that one party doesn’t win all the seats.

Democrats won three seats, and the Working Families Party won the other two seats. The two Working Families Party winners are Maria Pereira and Sauda Baraka. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for this news.

Working Families, Conservative Parties Do Well in New York City Council Races

Posted on by November 4, 2009
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Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this link to New York city election returns that include all candidates who were on the ballot. The link is from New York city’s Channel One TV station.

The Working Families Party ran its own nominees for City Council in some districts, and in both the 34th district and the 36 district, far exceeded the Republican total. In the 34th district the vote was: Democratic 59.87%, Working Families 34.56%, Republican 5.58%. In the 36th district, it was: Democratic 63.70%, Working Families 32.34%, Republican 3.96%.

In the 49th district, the results were: Democratic 57.25%, Conservative 26.26%, Republican 16.49%.

In the Mayor’s race, as IndependentPoliticalReport posted last night, the vote was: Michael Bloomberg 50.61% (which included 37.64% on the Republican line and 12.98% on the Independence Party line), William Thompson 46.04% (which included 43.57% on the Democratic line and 2.47% on the Working Families line), Stephen Christopher (Conservative) 1.66%, Billy Talen (Green) .81%, Francisca Villar (Party for Socialism and Liberation) .32%, Jimmy McMillan (Rent is Too Damn High) .24%, Joseph Dobrian (Libertarian) .18%, Dan Fein (Socialist Workers Party) .14%. It will be interesting to see how many of Bloomberg’s votes were cast on the Independence Party line; and it also be interesting to see how many of Thompson’s votes were cast on the Working Families line. Those figures aren’t available yet because the news organizations don’t collect them.

In 2005, the percentages had been: Michael Bloomberg (Republican, Independence) 58.40%, Fernando Ferrer (Democratic) 39.02%, Thomas Ognibene (Conservative) 1.13%, Anthony Gronowicz (Green) .64%, Jimmy McMillan (Rent is Too Damn High) .32%, Audrey Silk (Libertarian) .22%, Martin Koppel (Socialist Workers Party) .17%, Seth Blum (Education) .09%.