Mexico held a Congressional election on July 5, to fill all 500 seats. Although not all of the votes have been counted, it appears that the Green Party will have 25 seats in the new Congress, which takes office on September 1.

No party won a majority. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has the most seats, 235. According to this article, it is possible the Greens will cooperate with the PRI to give that party a working majority (235 plus 25 equals 260, which is over half of 500). The National Action Party (PAN), the president’s party, has 153 seats. The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has 75 seats. That still leaves 12 seats to be accounted for. Mexico uses Proportional Representation.

The July 6 issue of the Daily Emerald has this editorial, endorsing SB 326. The bill eases ballot access for independent candidates, and also legalizes fusion. The Daily Emerald is the daily newspaper for the University of Oregon at Eugene.

SB 326 was sent to the Governor on July 1. He has two months to sign or veto it.

According to George Will’s column of July 6, Meg Whitman wants to increase the number of signatures needed for an initiative to get on the California ballot. Whitman has a fair chance of being the Republican nominee for Governor of California in 2010. Senator John McCain has endorsed her. She was head of eBay and is a billionaire. According to George Will’s column, she also wants to decrease the number of Assembly districts. California only has 80 members of the lower house of its legislature, and already the average Assembly district has a population of 423,400.