The Uniform Law Commission has existed since 1892. It is composed of Commissioners appointed by each state, who meet once per year to draft proposed model state laws. All Commissioners must be attorneys. The purpose of the Commission is to help the states pass uniform laws in areas in which uniformity is judged to be useful to the entire nation.

The Commission will spend an hour at its next meeting working on a draft of a proposed state law to force presidential electors to vote for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates chosen by their own state’s political party (or, if an independent presidential candidate carried that state, to force the electors to vote for that independent presidential candidate). The working draft proposes that if an elector votes for someone other than his or her state party’s presidential nominee, that elector is deemed to have resigned; at that point the remaining electors would choose someone new.

The meeting to discuss this idea will be on Sunday morning, July 12, 2009, at the group’s annual meeting, which this year is being held at Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Uniform Law Commission does lets members of the public observe, but not testify. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

On June 10, Pennsylvania Representative Eugene DePasquale (D-York) introduced HB 1672. It provides that parties that hold primaries (i.e., those parties with registration of 15% or more) must let independent voters vote in their primaries. If the bill were to be signed into law, the only Pennsylvania voters would who not be able to vote in major party primaries would be members of minor parties. Under the bill, independents could choose which party primary to vote in. The bill has 9 co-sponsors.

Los Angeles elects its Mayor in the spring of the odd years that follow presidential election years. The Socialist Workers Party has run a candidate for Mayor in all Los Angeles elections, starting in 1945, except that it didn’t run in 1997.

At the March 3, 2009 election, the Socialist Workers Party again ran a candidate for Mayor. Also, the new Party for Socialism and Liberation also ran a candidate for Mayor. The two candidates, together, polled 2.01% of the total in a 10-candidate field. Although that may seem to be a small percentage, it is the first time that socialist candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles, together, have polled that much, since the 1930’s.

Socialist Workers Party percentages for Mayor of Los Angeles have been: 1945 .21%, 1949 .38%, 1953 .73%, 1957 1.38%, 1961 .47%, 1965 .07%, 1969 .05%, 1973 .35%, 1977 .19%, 1981 .23%, 1985 .16%, 1989 .41%, 1993 .11%, 1997 no candidate, 2001 .16%, 2005 .48%.

The 2009 results are .90% for James Harris, Socialist Workers candidate; and 1.11% for Carlos Alvarez, Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate. The 2009 election had 10 candidates, 3 of whom had Spanish surnames.

The Socialist Workers Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation are the only parties with “socialist” , “communist”, or “workers” in their names, that have run candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles since before World War II.