Alabama and New Jersey held primaries (for office other than president) on June 3. The turnout in both states was very low. In Alabama, only 14% of the registered voters voted. The New Jersey percentage has not been calculated, but it clearly was unusually low. New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Doherty has just introduced a bill (no bill number assigned yet) to put the New Jersey presidential primary back in June, to be simultaneous with the primary for other offices.
The Washington Times on June 5 published this story about the Bob Barr campaign. The more interesting details are on page two of the story. The story quotes Barr’s campaign manager, Russ Verney, as saying that the campaign will be using social science and polling data to find specific counties and regions in which an all-out advertising campaign would be most effective.
Even though the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee have reached an understanding that Florida may have half its delegation strength, one of the lawsuits over this controversy is proceeding. Victor DiMaio filed a notice of appeal to the 11th circuit on June 4. DiMaio is a rank-and-file Democratic voter who says that the Democratic National Committee should not have been permitted to deprive any state of its delegates to the national convention. He had lost in U.S. District Court on May 28.
Election law lawsuits are not moot just because the election is over, although the Democratic National Committee will probably still argue that the appeal is moot. The case is called DiMaio v Democratic National Committee and Florida Democratic Party.
On May 27, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed HB 1378. It lets cities and special districts use Instant-Runoff Voting for their own officers.
Brookings has published this thought-provoking essay by Professor Michael P. McDonald about the unintended consequences of the primary schedule, both for the Democratic race, and also the Republican race. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
