Daily Kos Publicizes Arkansas Green U.S. Senate Candidacy

Posted on by April 20, 2008
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Daily Kos posted a short item about Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Rebekah Kennedy, who is the only opposition to Democratic Senator Mark Pryor this year in Arkansas. The Daily Kos posting was made at 10:19 am on April 19, and it received 554 comments within the first 25 hours after it was posted.

Some Daily Kos readers have such a knee-jerk dislike of minor parties, many posters claimed that Kennedy is just trying to be a “spoiler”. Other posters repeatedly pointed out that no Republican is running in that race. One poster said that, nevertheless, if Kennedy polls a large share of the vote, that might weaken Pryor so much that Republicans might endanger him in 2014. Some posters indicated they had not even been aware that the U.S. Senate race is between a Green and a Democrat, so the exchange (on a web page with hundreds of thousands of readers) certainly increased awareness of the Arkansas Senate race.

General Election Polls Suggest Possibility of Electoral College Tie

Posted on by February 18, 2019
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The webpage www.electoral-vote.com tracks individual state polls for the general election for president. Professor Andrew Tanenbaum, who runs this site, suggests that if the major party nominees are Barack Obama and John McCain, a likely electoral vote result (based on polls released on April 19 and preceding days) is 269 electoral votes for each candidate.

The tie comes about if Obama carries California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin; and if McCain carries the other 29 states.

Defenders of the Electoral College never mention the disadvantage that the Electoral College can produce a tie. In case of a tie, the newly-elected House of Representatives would choose the president, with each state getting one vote. A state whose delegation is split evenly loses its vote. Thanks to Malcolm Gutter for the link to electoral-vote.com.

Oregon "Top-Two" Initiative

Posted on by April 20, 2008
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Proponents of the “top-two” system are expecting to qualify an initiative for the Oregon November 2008 ballot, to establish that type of election system. They need 82,579 valid signatures by July 3, and will probably succeed.

BlueOregon has this commentary, by Nick Wirth, about how the system would work in practice. The commentary does not discuss the effect of the proposal on minor parties, but instead focuses on the point that the system will not help moderates to win elections, and it will not result in more voter choice. Thanks to Steve Rankin for the link.

Oregon “Top-Two” Initiative

Posted on by April 20, 2008
Reply

Proponents of the “top-two” system are expecting to qualify an initiative for the Oregon November 2008 ballot, to establish that type of election system. They need 82,579 valid signatures by July 3, and will probably succeed.

BlueOregon has this commentary, by Nick Wirth, about how the system would work in practice. The commentary does not discuss the effect of the proposal on minor parties, but instead focuses on the point that the system will not help moderates to win elections, and it will not result in more voter choice. Thanks to Steve Rankin for the link.

Guam Democratic Caucus is Next Event After Pennsylvania

Posted on by April 19, 2008
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The April 22 Pennsylvania primary is April’s only Democratic Party nominating event. After that, the next round is the Guam caucus, which has received little publicity. Guam Democrats will choose 4 delegates on Saturday, May 3 (actually, though, 8 will be chosen, and each will have a half-vote). Caucuses will be held in all 19 municipalities. Any registered Democrat may participate. Voters vote directly for candidates for Delegate, using paper ballots supplied by the party. Filing to run for Delegate closed on April 18.

Republicans held their Guam caucus on March 8. John McCain won that event.

Guam is the only U.S. possession that also votes for president in November. However, since Guam has no electoral votes, the November presidential vote doesn’t actually affect the national outcome. The Guam vote for president in November doesn’t even rate a mention in U.S. newspapers. In 2004, the November vote was: Bush 21,490; Kerry 11,781; Nader 196; Badnarik 67.