The Blog of Legal Times has this amusing story about how the clocks in the U.S. Supreme Court malfunctioned at oral argument on November 2. This has nothing to do with election law but it is too funny not to pass on.
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Green Party Watch has an excellent YouTube which lasts seven minutes and 51 seconds, on how to organize the paperwork for an Illinois ballot access petition. The “show” stars Phil Huckelberry, state chair of the Illinois Green Party, as he fastens loose petition sheets that have recently been collected to get Tom Tresser on the Green Party primary ballot for Cook County Board President. See that particular blog post from Green Party Watch here.
Illinois requires the petition pages to be fastened together, and the video shows how that is done. The filing must also include a Declaration of Candidacy, and for candidates who are running for state or local office it must include a Statement of Economic Interest.
November 2 was the deadline for candidates seeking a place on the February 2010 primaries in Illinois. As expected, Richard Whitney filed for Governor in the Green Party primary. He had been the party’s gubernatorial candidate in 2006, and received 10.36% of the vote in the general election.
Also filing was Richard B. Mayers of Chicago, who has been associated with white supremacists in the past. He filed in the Green Party primary in 2008 for a U.S. House seat, but he was removed from the primary ballot after a challenge to his petition. Previously, he had run filed to run in the Democratic primary for various posts. The Green Party is taking steps to educate people that Mayers’ views are not in accordance with Green Party views.
On November 2, a last-minute poll, conducted by Siena College, was released for the U.S. House seat in New York. It shows Doug Hoffman (Conservative) at 41%, Bill Owens (Democrat-Working Families) at 36%, Dede Scozzafava (Republican-Independence) at 5%, and undecided 18%. The poll doesn’t have much predictive power because so many voters say they are still undecided.
The New York Times has this column by Ross Douthat, one of the Times regular columnists. He argues that the U.S. election system works better when minor party and independent candidates participate. Thanks to Oliver Hall for the link.