Probably the voters of Tulsa, Oklahoma, will vote on November 10, 2009, whether to switch the city’s partisan elections to non-partisan elections. See this story. The initiative (to provide for non-partisan elections) needs 3,427 signatures. Over 6,000 signatures were submitted. As far as is known, Tulsa is the only city in Oklahoma that holds partisan elections for its own officers.
On July 28, proponents of a Referendum in Washington state asked a U.S. District Court to protect the privacy of the people who signed their petition. The case is Protect Marriage Washington v Reed, 3:09-cv-0546. The case was assigned to Judge Benjamin Settle, a Bush Jr. appointee. On July 29, Judge Settle issued a Temporary Restraining Order, preventing the names from being made public until the case is decided. See this story.
There has been few precedents on whether the names and addresses of people who sign petitions should be considered a public record. Some states provide by law that the records are not public, but most states do not. The petition in this case is to prevent a new law from going into effect, to provide for civil unions for same-sex couples. No one knows yet if the petition has enough valid signatures. Proponents submitted 138,500 signatures. They need 120,577 valid signatures, so it seems somewhat likely the petition will fall short.
The U.S. Supreme Court is holding a rare summer hearing in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 08-205, on September 9. Amicus curiae briefs on both sides are due July 31. Already at least two have been filed, both opposed to the McCain-Feingold law.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a brief, urging that the Court continue to protect corporations that are news media. The brief can be seen at the organization’s webpage, but there is no direct link to the brief itself. The webpage is www.rcfp.org.
Seven former Chairmen of the FEC filed a brief, urging the Court to strike down part of the McCain-Feingold law, partly on the grounds that the law has become so excessively complicated that it inhibits the free exercise of free speech. The brief is on the web page of the James Madison Center at www.jamesmadisoncenter.org. Scroll down in the left-hand column until coming to “Citizens United’s McCain-Feingold Challenge.”
Ever since 1920, the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives has published a booklet entitled “Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election” after each presidential election. The Clerk has just published the 2008 booklet. It is 77 pages long and can be seen here.
This booklet uses arbitrary standards. For example, in the presidential table at the rear of the book, the “Independent” column contains the Ralph Nader vote, and Nader is properly credited with votes from every state but Oklahoma (because Oklahoma bans write-ins). This is true, even though Nader had different ballot labels in different states. In most states it was “independent” but in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah, it was something else. But, the “Independent” column collected all of Nader’s votes, regardless of label.
However, in the next-door column, the “Libertarian” column does not include any votes for Bob Barr from Tennessee. Instead, the authors of the table put the Tennessee Barr vote in the “Other” column, because Barr’s ballot label in Tennessee was “independent.” Also the chart omits Barr’s Maine write-in votes, even though the Secretary of State tallied them.
The book is worthwhile, however, even with its faults. Another table at the back includes the nationwide vote for each political party for each House of Congress. The table for U.S. House shows that Libertarians running for U.S. House, under their own party label (as opposed to Libertarians who were running with an “independent” label) polled 1,083,096 votes. The Libertarian Party has polled over 1,000,000 votes for U.S. House four times: 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2008. It is the only party, besides the Democratic and Republican Parties, that has polled over 1,000,000 votes for U.S. House since 1912, when the Progressive Party did so. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news about the publication of the booklet.
During the last week, several interesting election law bills have continued to gain co-sponsors.
HR 1826, public funding for Congressional candidates, has gained 6 co-sponsors in the last 7 days, and now has 70. It has a hearing on July 30. UPDATE: see this Maine newspaper story about the upcoming hearing.
HR 3025, for bipartisan commissions to draw U.S. House districts, gained one co-sponsor in the last 7 days, and now has 21.
HR 2894, to outlaw certain kinds of vote-counting machines, gained one co-sponsor in the last 7 days, and now has 83.
HR 2499, for a popular vote on the future political status of Puerto Rico, gained two co-sponsors in the last 7 days, and now has 163.
HR 1503, to provide that presidential candidates must file a copy of their birth certificate with the Federal Election Commission, gained one co-sponsor in the last 7 days (Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas) and now has 10.
