On September 5, the Delaware Chancery Court in Sussex County ruled that the Independent Party of Delaware’s nominating convention this year was conducted properly. An activist of that party who was not happy about the party’s choice of a gubernatorial nominee had sued the party, arguing that its nominating procedures this year were unlawful. Allen v Independent Party of Delaware, 3951-cc.

The court ruled that a qualified minor party in Delaware is free to have bylaws that let the party’s board choose the party nominees. If the case had gone the other way, Ralph Nader’s ballot position in Delaware would have been jeopardized, since the same procedure used by the Independent Party of Delaware to nominate its candidate for Governor had been used to nominate Nader for president. Thanks to David Finger for this news.

On September 4, a slate of presidential electors was filed at the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office, in person. The electors are pledged to Ron Paul for president, and former Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., for vice-president. The partisan label for this slate is “Louisiana Taxpayers Party.” The filing, and the $500 was accepted, but the Secretary of State did not commit to printing the slate on the ballot. However, there is no law that says presidential candidates at the November election must sign any declaration of candidacy.

Louisiana is one of the few states that still prints the names of presidential elector candidates on the ballot. Thus, Louisiana elections officials have a heightened awareness that the true candidates in November elections are the presidential elector candidates, and that presidential candidates’ names on the ballot are only there as labels, describing the intentions of those elector candidates.

It has been difficult to get information from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office this week, because Baton Rouge electricity has been disrupted. The Secretary’s web page has been down for several days, and no receptionist has been answering the phone in that office. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for breaking the story.

On August 27, U.S. District Court Judge Jose A. Fuste ordered the Puerto Rican Election Commission to print ballots in English as well as Spanish. The Commonwealth had been planning to print ballots only in Spanish. The Commission argued that the Voting Rights Act doesn’t apply to Puerto Rico, but the court disagreed. The Voting Rights Act requires that language minorities amounting to at least 5% must have their own language on ballots. The plaintiff presented evidence to show that 14% of the population of Puerto Rico uses English as their first language. The case is Diffenderfer v Gomez Colon, no. 08-1918. Here is the decision, thanks to Professor Eugene Volokh.

After the ruling, the Commission said it would be impossible to comply in time for the November 4 election. The Commission is appealing to the 1st Circuit. Puerto Rico this year elects a Governor, a Commonwealth Legislature, and a representative to the U.S. House of Representatives. Puerto Rico does not vote for president in the general election, although it did hold a Democratic presidential primary this year and in certain earlier years.

UPDATE: the case number in the First Circuit is 08-2107.