Approximately 70% of all candidates running for the Connecticut legislature are expected to participate in the state’s public funding program. It passed in 2005 but was not in effect until 2007, when it was used for a few special elections. 2008 is the first time the system has been in usage for a regularly-scheduled election. This article in the Boston Globe about the Connecticut system does not mention that the Connecticut system is currently under attack in federal court over the parts that discriminate against minor party and independent candidates.

On July 18, the Nevada Secretary of State announced that Ralph Nader’s independent petition has enough valid signatures.

A few days before that, the Washington Secretary of State made the same announcement. Thanks to the poster below for this information.

Nader is now officially on the ballot in 6 states, a number that will sharply increase in the next few weeks, as more of his petitions are submitted and presumably verified.

Some years ago, the New York Independence Party passed a Bylaw, giving control of nomination decisions in New York city to the state party committee, instead of the local county committes within New York city. The specific nomination decisions involved were on which non-members of the party could run in the Independence Party’s primary.

Now the state committee of the Independence Party has passed another bylaw, giving state party control over counties with a population greater than 750,000, but only for districts entirely within such counties. That bylaw seems to have been passed to alter the outcome in one particular State Senate race in Nassau County (part of Long Island). See this article for the details. The move is helpful to the Republican Party in that particular district.