Late on Friday, October 31, U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara, a Reagan appointee, removed Alice Kryzan from the November ballot as the Working Families Party nominee (for U.S. House in the 26th district) and restored Jonathan Powers as the party’s nominee. A mid-level state court earlier in the day had put Kryzan on the ballot and taken Powers off. Then, the highest state court refused to intervene. So, then the losers in the state court case filed a federal lawsuit. The issue is whether the original Working Families Party nominee, Powers, is ineligible to serve in Congress based on his residence. Powers had won the party’s primary in September.

Powers doesn’t want to be the party’s nominee any longer, and moved out of New York state, claiming that he therefore did not meet the constitutional qualifications to be a member of Congress from New York state. If he is still eligible, he is stuck on the ballot. Article I says members of Congress must live in the state they seek to represent “when elected.” Since both Powers and Kryzan want Kryzan to have the Working Families nomination, one might wonder who filed the federal lawsuit. The answer is that the federal case was filed by supports of Chris Lee, the Republican nominee. Lee doesn’t want Kryzan to have the Working Families nomination, because Kryzan is also the Democratic nominee, and if she gets both nominations, that will help her. On the other hand, it is widely expected that Lee will win in any event.

It is somewhat astonishing that New York still doesn’t have its ballot in place for the November 4 election, in the 26th U.S. House district. It is likely the 2nd circuit will be involved on Monday, November 3. This Buffalo News article explains some of the problems for elections officials.

On October 31, Hawaii’s Vital Statistics Office told the press that they have verified the validity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate in that state. See this article. Thanks to the commenters who made me aware of this news. Apparently, besides Phil Berg’s lawsuit in Pennsylvania over Obama’s citizenship, there have been somewhat parallel lawsuits filed and already dismissed in Ohio, Hawaii, and Washington state, and perhaps others.

In September 2008, former California State Senator Steve Peace (D-San Diego) had filed a proposed initiative with the California Attorney General. However, according to the Sacramento Bee of October 31, he has withdrawn his own initiative. The article does not explain why. However, the initiative had been flawed. Perhaps Peace withdrew it so that he, or someone else, could do a better job of drafting it. Thanks to Kevin Takenaga for this news.