Tacoma, Washington’s daily newspaper, the News Tribune, has this interesting story about labels on this year’s primary and election. The article discusses the possibility that some candidates may try labels such as “Endorsed GOP”, or other innovative “preferences” that try to suggest the candidate is endorsed by a particular party.

The article is slightly misleading when it says the US Supreme Court says “top-two” may be constitutional. The Court only said “top-two” may be constitutional, relative to the Political Party Freedom of Association argument. Other legal arguments against “top-two” were not evaluated by either the U.S. Supreme Court, or the lower courts, such as the argument that the system is unconstitutional for congressional elections under the ballot access precedents. Thanks to Steve Rankin for the link.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion on April 23 in a non-election law case, it did not issue the Indiana photo voter ID decision. The next possible date for that decision is April 28, Monday. The Court will be sitting in April, May and June for the sole purpose of issuing decisions; the oral arguments for this session will be over by noon on Wednesday, April 23.

On April 22, Mississippi held an election to fill a vacancy in the U.S. House, First district. Mississippi special elections do not provide for a party nomination process, so two Republicans and two Democrats were on the ballot, along with an independent and a Green.

The results: Travis Childers, Dem., 49.41%; Greg Davis, Rep., 46.32%; Glen McCullough, Rep., 1.43%; Steve Holland, Dem., 1.17%; Wally Pang, Independent, 1.08%; John Wages, Green, .59%. Since no one got 50%, there will be a runoff on May 13. This was the first time a Green Party member had ever run for Congress from Mississippi.

When the First District voted in November 2006, the results had been: Republican 65.92%; Democratic 34.08%. The First District is in the northeast corner of Mississippi, and had been represented by a Republican in all elections starting in 1994.