On July 22, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn extended the petitioning period, in Ulster County, for candidates and activists who want a September primary ballot prepared for the Independence Party in Ulster County. New York doesn’t normally print up a primary ballot for a party unless there are at least two candidates running against each other for a particular office. However, it will be print a primary ballot, even if there are no candidates on that ballot, if a petition requesting such a ballot is submitted. That makes it possible for write-in candidates to be elected or nominated. The petition to require a primary ballot to be printed was due July 17, but the court order extends the time for this petition to July 31. Proponents desire write-in space on the Independence Party primary for U.S. House, both branches of the state legislature, partisan county office, and party office. If their petition succeeds, any write-in candidate who outpolls his or her opponents wins, no matter how few write-ins are obtained. The ruling is part of Loeber v Spargo, no. 04-1193. The case has many other issues relating to malapportioned districts, and is quite old. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

California has a new format for its voter registration form, for the “political party” choice. The form asks “Do you want to register with a political party?”. The “Yes” block is on the left; the “No” block is on the right.

Under the “Yes” block, the form lists the ballot-qualified parties in alphabetical order, with a checkbox next to the name of each. Of course there is also a blank line for someone who wants to register into a party that is not ballot-qualified.

The new form is designed to deal with the problem that some people wish to register “Independent”, but the legislature forbids the Secretary of State from listing that choice on the form. This has caused some people to register into the American Independent Party because they have thought that is the proper way to show oneself as an independent.

In California, only charter cities have the freedom to use Instant-Runoff Voting to elect their own city officers. Davis, California voters voted in 2006 to use IRV, but since Davis is not a charter city, the vote cannot have any effect. But on July 22, the Davis City Council voted to put the question of whether to become a charter city on the November 2008 ballot.