In June 2008, some Ron Paul supporters won seats on the Alameda County, California, Republican Central Committee. Twentyfive days after the election, the County Chair of the Alameda Republican Party filed an election challenge, saying that some of the people elected had not been members of the Republican Party during the three months before filing for the office. The Superior Court had dismissed the lawsuit, saying that the challenge to the election results should have been filed no later than 5 days after the election.

On September 4, the State Court of Appeals said that the challenge had been timely filed, and sent the case back to the Superior Court to decide the merits of the case. The California Election Code says primary election results must be challenged within 5 days, but for actual elections, the deadline is 30 days. The Appeals Court said the election of County Central members is an “election”, not a “primary”. The case is Cummings v Stanley, A123743. In the Superior Court it is RG-08-400144.

In 2006 the voters of Pierce County, Washington (which includes Tacoma) passed a measure to use Instant Runoff Voting for county offices. This year, the Pierce County Council put a repeal of IRV on the November 3, 2009 ballot. The repeal is known as Amendment Number 3. The existing charter says, “The elections of all County officials, except judges and Prosecuting Attorney, shall be conducted using IRV.” The proposed repeal would replace that with “The elections of all County officials, including judges and Prosecuting Attorney, shall be conducted according to the state election method.”

Kelly Haughton, a leader of the pro-IRV forces in Pierce County, has observed that the proposal does not say that elections for County office should use the “top-two” system, which Washington state currently uses. This is probably because no one in Washington can be certain what the future “state election method” will be, given that “top two” is still under attack in a U.S. District Court in Washington. The opponents of IRV were apparently being careful when they wrote their ballot question, so that if it passes, and if the state’s election system changes again in the future, the change won’t invalidate the County measure.

The Mississippi Republican Party, and the Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hosemann, have been backing a proposed initiative to ask the voters if voters at the polls should be required to show govenment photo-ID. However, according to this story, the petition has not been making enough progress to qualify for the 2010 ballot. But, the drive can continue and possibly use the same signatures, plus many more additional signatures, to get on the 2011 ballot. Thanks to BallotBoxNews for the link.