New Mexico is the only state in which state elections officials have still not used the November 2008 election returns to determine which parties are ballot-qualified and which are not. The person in the New Mexico Secretary of State who is in charge of making that determination has been saying for four months that he is too busy to look at the issue, but that he will look at it as soon as the legislature adjourns. The New Mexico legislature’s last day is Saturday, March 21.
On March 19, several Clay County officials were arrested and charged with various federal crimes involving elections and election returns. Among those arrested were the Circuit Court Judge and the County Clerk. See this story from Bradblog. According to Bradblog, Clay County uses ES&S iVotronic vote-counting machines, which leave no paper trail.
Some of those arrested are Democrats, and some are Republicans. Clay County in November 2008 voted McCain 5,710; Obama 1,552; Nader 54; Barr 26; Baldwin 22.
On March 17, the Minnesota Supreme Court granted expedited review in the case on whether the Minnesota Constitution permits Instant Runoff Voting. A lower court had ruled on January 13, 2009, that nothing in the State Constitution prevents cities from using IRV for their own elections. Opponents of IRV had then appealed. The State Supreme Court wants the brief of opponents submitted by March 27, and the brief of supporters of IRV to be submitted by April 6. The case is Minnesota Voters Alliance v City of Minneapolis, A09-182.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, will hear oral arguments in Nader v Democratic National Committee, on the morning of Friday, March 20, at the Prettyman Courthouse, 333 Constitution Avenue, 5th floor, room 31. The case number is 08-7074. The 3-judge panel starts hearing cases at 9:30 a.m., and the Nader case is the third one that will be heard.
On March 18, a subcommittee of the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee passed HB 2981, the ballot access improvement bill. The bill is likely to get a hearing in the full Judiciary Committee next week or the week after. The bill moves the non-presidential petition deadline from May to August (so that it matches the presidential petition deadline), and lowers the number of signatures from 2% of the last vote cast, to 1%. West Virginia’s petitions were 1% before 1999, but the 1999 session of the legislature increased it to 2%.
