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.
The Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has decided not to appeal last week’s U.S. District Court order putting the Libertarian Party on the ballot. This will be the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has appeared on the ballot in Ohio since 2000.
An NBC/WSJ Poll released on July 23 shows these results for president: Obama 48%, McCain 35%, Nader 5%, Barr 2%, other and undecided 10%.
When the pollster only mentions the two major party candidates to respondents, the results are: Obama 47%, McCain 41%, other and undecided 12%. See here for more details. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this link.
On July 23, the Connecticut Working Families Party released a list of its legislative nominees. See this newspaper story. The reporter seemed surprised that the party had cross-endorsed two Republican candidates, but the Working Families Party in 2006 had also cross-endorsed two Republican legislative candidates, Senators Leonard Fasano and Tony Guglielmo.
Bill Collins is an independent candidate for the South Carolina State Senate, 38th district, this year. He is a well-known publisher and he could perhaps win the general election. His only opponent is a Republican. See this story. Independents were elected to the State House in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998, but South Carolina hasn’t had an independent, or a member of a minor party, in the State Senate since 1894.
