The case pending in U.S. District Court in Orange County, California, on the subject of President Obama’s qualifications, has changed its lead plaintiff. Formerly, the case was known as Alan Keyes v Barack Obama. Keyes is still a co-plaintiff, but the lead plaintiff is now Pamela Barnett, an officer of the U.S. military, so the case will in the future be called Barnett v Obama. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
The New Democratic Party, generally considered to be Canada’s third most important political party (or perhaps tied for third, with the Bloc Quebecois), is considering changing its name, according to this story. The party’s national meeting next week will consider that idea.
Some bills in the U.S. House of Representatives have gained co-sponsors in the last nine days. HR 1826, for public funding of Congressional candidates, has gained 7, and now has 77. HR 2894, the Rush Holt bill on vote-counting machines, has gained 4 and now has 87. HR 3025, to require states to use bipartisan commissions to draw U.S. House boundaries, has gained one and now has 22.
On August 7, the Libertarian Party will file a lawsuit against the District of Columbia Board of Elections, over the Board’s refusal to count write-ins for Bob Barr for president in November 2008. UPDATE: the case was filed on August 7, although the case number can’t be known until Monday. Barr was the only declared write-in presidential candidate in the District. In order to be a declared write-in candidate in D.C., the presidential candidate must file a slate of presidential elector candidates with the Board. Each of the presidential elector candidates must have been a D.C. resident for at least three years. The residency requirement made it impossible for the Constitution Party to file for write-in status in D.C. in 2008. Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney were both on the ballot in D.C.
This will be the second lawsuit filed over a failure to count or tally write-ins. A somewhat similar lawsuit is pending in federal court in Pennsylvania over that state’s refusal to tally any write-in votes for Cynthia McKinney last year, even though she also filed a list of presidential elector candidates with the Pennsylvania Division of Elections.
On August 6, the Federal Election Commission released its book Federal Elections 2008. It contains the number of votes cast by state for each presidential candidate. It also contains the number of votes received by each candidate for Congress in 2008. The link to the on-line version is here. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
