On July 24, Northern Mariana Islands Governor Benigno Fitial signed House Bill 16-220 into law. It provides that when no one gets as much as 50% for Governor, a run-off will be held. The new law takes effect in time for this November’s gubernatorial election. The election is November 7, 2009 (Saturday).

The bill is a response to the 2005 gubernatorial election, when the Covenant Party’s nominee was elected with only 28.1% of the total vote cast for Governor. An independent candidate placed second with 27.3%, followed by the Republican nominee with 26.6%, and the Democratic nominee with 18.0%.

Bill De Blasio, New York city councilmember who is trying to get on the Democratic primary in September 2009 for New York City Public Advocate, has won a rehearing in the City Board of Elections. It is set for 1:30 pm on Tuesday, July 28. The Board removed him because his cover sheet says he submitted 131 volumes of petitions, but actually he submitted 132 volumes.

The Board of Elections is in a difficult spot. On the one hand the law is obviously foolish to keep a candidate off the ballot for such a trivial error, especially since he might win the primary if he is on the ballot. On the other hand, the law (unwise though it is) is clear, and if the Board grants him an exemption, it knows that it won’t be able to keep candidates off in the future if they make entry errors on their cover sheets. De Blasio has already filed a lawsuit against the Board of Elections, which will be pursued if the Board doesn’t put him on the ballot. No one seems to have thought about whether De Blasio would be willing to be a write-in candidate if he is ultimately kept off the September primary ballot.

UPDATE: the lawsuit will be heard Monday, August 3, unless the Board puts him back on the ballot. The case is De Blasio v Board of Elections, state supreme court, Manhatten, 09-1105-09.

On March 16, 2009, the faction of the American Independent Party of California allied with Chuck Baldwin filed a lawsuit to win a ruling that its state officers are the legal state officers. That faction sued the faction of the party allied with Alan Keyes. The case is King v Robinson, Solano County Superior Court 033119.

That case has moved slowly because the defendants have been avoiding being served. However, courts do have procedures to handle that impediment, and those procedures are underway. The case has a status conference on October 19, 2009. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for the news of the status conference.