The Orlando, Florida Sentinel of October 29 has this op-ed by John B. Anderson, arguing the merits of using Instant Runoff Voting. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link. The op-ed will probably soon be carried by other newspapers as well.
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New York state improved one ballot access law several months ago. Thanks to Richard Cooper for this belated news. On July 28, the Governor signed S1366. It deletes the requirement that an independent candidate’s petition must include language that the circulator is a registered voter in the district that the candidate is running in.
In 2000, the 2nd Circuit ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state to require circulators of petitions to get someone on a primary ballot to be a registered voter in that district. And in 2004, a U.S. District Court in New York said it is also unconstitutional for the state to require circulators of independent candidate petitions to be a registered voter in that district. But, the legislature never changed either law. However, it has now changed the law relating to circulators for independent candidate petitions.
In the interim, the disconnect between the actual law (as determined by courts) and what the state petition forms said on them about the circulator, caused problems. In 2005 the highest state court in New York kept a candidate off the general election ballot because her circulator had scratched off the invalid language on the state-printed petition forms. The Court said it was true that the circulator was free to circulate the petition, even though he didn’t live in the district. But it said it was also true that circulators cannot alter the state forms, unless they explain why, and since the circulator had merely scratched off the language saying under penalty of perjury that he lived in the district, but didn’t write a note on each petition form saying why he was scratching it off, that his work was invalid. That case was McGuire v Gamache, 840 NE 2d 107. The vote on the State Court of Appeals was 5-2.
When S.1366 passed the legislature this year, eleven members of the Assembly voted “No.” Thanks to Richard Cooper for this news.
On October 28, St. Mary’s College in Contra Costa County sponsored a debate for the 5 ballot-listed candidates on the ballot in the November 3 special election for California’s 10th district U.S. House race. See this story. The five parties with candidates are American Independent, Democratic, Green, Peace & Freedom, and Republican.
City Hall, a publication in New York city, has this story in its October 28 issue. The story is about the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s candidate for Mayor, Francesca Villar.
President Obama is scheduled to sign S.1390 on Wednesday, October 28. This is the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, contained within the Defense Authorization Bill. The Voter Empowerment Act tells states that in federal elections, they must mail overseas absentee ballots no later than 45 days before the election. UPDATE: he did sign the bill.
Like the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and the Motor Voter Act of 1993, this new bill is one more instance in which the federal government is slowly setting national uniform standards for the nation for federal election administration. The United States and Switzerland are the only nations in the world in which the laws for administering elections for the national elections are written by various subunits of that nation. As the trend continues, it seems more plausible that Congress will eventually set a federal standard for ballot access for Presidential and Congressional candidates.