On September 29, Pennsylvania held a special election to fill the vacant State Senate seat in the 24th district. The preliminary vote: Republican Bob Mensch 66.2%; Democrat Anne Scheuring 30.3%; Libertarian Barbara Steever 3.5%.
Last time this seat was up for election, in 2006, the vote had been: Republican 56.5%, Democratic 43.5%.
On September 28, the South Carolina Green Party filed this brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th circuit. The case is South Carolina Green Party v South Carolina State Election Commission, 09-1915. The state’s brief is due on October 30.
The issue is whether a state can provide that if a candidate seeks the nomination of two parties, wins the first nomination, but then loses the fight for the second party’s nomination, whether the state can then nullify the first party’s nomination and leave it without any nominee for that particular office. This issue has not come up before in any other state. Most states don’t permit fusion. And among the states that do permit it, none of the other fusion states have ever had a law like the South Carolina law at issue.
The 9th circuit will hear Doe v Reed, no. 09-35818, in Pasadena, California, on Wednesday, October 14. This is the case from Washington state on whether the Secretary of State should release the names and addresses of people who signed a referendum petition, to a group that wants to put that information on a web page. The particular referendum petition at issue was filed to require a vote on the civil union law passed earlier this year by the legislature. The lower court had issued an injunction, preventing the names from being released. The Secretary of State will ask the 9th circuit to reverse that injunction.
New York will fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 23rd district, on November 3, 2009. The race seems likely to be a 3-way contest, because the Conservative Party has its own nominee, and is not cross-endorsing the Republican nominee.
Georgia has an election law that says absentee ballots can only be mailed to the voter’s permanent address, or to a temporary address that is outside the voter’s home county or municipality. On September 29, two voters filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that that law is unconstitutional as applied to registered voters who happen to be in jail (in their home town or city) because of a misdemeanor. Ironically, if either of them had been in jail in a city other than their home city, they could have received an absentee ballot.
The case is based on a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision from New York, which struck down a virtually identical New York law. The ACLU National Voting Rights Office is representing the two voters. The case is Swann v Handel, 1:09-cv-2674, northern district. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.
