On October 15, a state court in Arizona halted the November 3, 2009 election for City Council in Prescott, because the ballot had omitted Paul Katan. See this story from the Prescott Daily Courier. Prescott uses two-round non-partisan elections for city council, and in this election, is electing three councilmembers at-large.

Katan placed seventh in the first round on September 1, and only the top six vote-getters were allowed into the November run-off. But, after the first round, the candidate who had placed fifth withdrew. The city then printed ballots with only five candidates’ names on the ballot. Katan believed at that point that since he had placed sixth among the candidates who had not withdrawn, his name should be on the November ballot. He first agreed to be a write-in candidate in November if the city would take steps to inform the voters of his write-in candidacy. When the city did not do that, Katan sued, and has won. The election will be postponed because it is too late to print new ballots and still hold the election on November 3. The city may appeal.

MSNBC’s “First Read” page of news about election campaigns has this interesting story about the New Jersey gubernatorial race. It mentions details from the tax returns of the three candidates who get the most publicity (the Democrat, the Republican, and the independent who has been included in the debates). It also mentions that all three of these candidates would like an endorsement from New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but so far Bloomberg won’t express any opinion.

The second gubernatorial debate is on October 16 at 7 p.m. It will be broadcast on Channel 29 in Philadelphia on Saturday at 2 p.m., and on Channel 9 in New York on Sunday at noon.

The Chris Daggett campaign has posted pictures of the ballots of 20 of New Jersey’s 21 counties on its web page. See this link. The only county that lists all the candidates for Governor in a single group, without any party columns, is Sussex County. The fact that Sussex County uses such a format is evidence that all counties could do the same, if they wish.

On October 15, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the state’s Public Records Act does not apply to court records. The Public Records Act is the same law that serves as the basis for the Washington Secretary of State’s decision to release the names and addresses of people who sign referendum and initiative petitions. The recent State Supreme Court decision has no direct bearing on the pending lawsuits over whether petition signers’ names become public or not, but it is an interesting coincidence that this law is the subject of so many lawsuits almost simultaneously.

The recent State Supreme Court opinion is City of Federal Way v Koenig, 82288-3. Thanks to Howard Bashman’s HowAppealing for this news.