The U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th circuit, will hear oral arguments in Terrence Johnson v Bredesen, 08-6377, on October 13. UPDATE: it appears that no oral argument will be held in this case, and the October 13 is just the date on which the Court considers the case ripe for adjudication. This is the case on Tennessee’s policy of not letting ex-felons register to vote if they still owe restitution or child support. The plaintiff argues that the policy violates the 24th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids a “poll tax or other tax” as a condition of voting. The lower court had upheld the Tennessee restriction.

A lower Pennsylvania state court in Mercer County must decide if a write-in candidate in Pennsylvania is a “candidate” under the law. Pennsylvania is the only large-population state that permits write-ins, but has no procedure for a write-in candidate to file a write-in declaration of candidacy. Beverly Scurpa recently was the write-in winner for Sharpsville School Board. However, after the election, one of the ballot-listed candidates who lost challenged her election. The law says “candidates” must not be polling place officials, and Scurpa was a polling place official. See this story.

Although common sense seems to dictate that anyone who wins an election was a “candidate”, it is possible in Pennsylvania for someone to be elected as a write-in, even if that person had not expressed any intention to run. There are instances in which groups of voters band together to elect someone via write-in votes, even against that person’s interest in holding the job. This generally happens only in very small municipalities that have trouble finding people to fill the local elected offices.

On August 31, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences said it will use Instant Runoff Voting to choose the “best picture” Oscar winner. In June 2009, the Academy had decided to nominate ten movies, not five, for “best picture”. The Academy apparently believed that, with so many nominees, IRV will result in a fairer decision. The Academy had also used IRV for “best picture” in 1945 and earlier years. Thanks to Rob Richie for this news. See this story from the Los Angeles Times. Also see Blair Bobier’s commentary at the New America Foundation blog.