The New York State Court of Appeals, the highest state court in that state, ruled at 6 pm on February 25 that the Independence Party should be restored to the ballot, for the special election being held in the 48th State Senate. The election is February 26.

Such last-minute changes to the ballot are only possible because New York state uses mechanical voting machines. The Court ruled that the valid Independence Party nominee is Will Barclay, who is also the Republican Party nominee and Conservative Party nominee.

The 48th State Senate district has two counties and part of a third. One county Independence Party organization had chosen Will Barclay, but the other county party organization had chosen the Democratic nominee, Darrel Aubertine. State party rules said that the county that chose Barclay should have the upper hand, since it cast more votes in November 2006 for the party’s gubernatorial vote. But the lower state courts had said that the party rule is only applicable if the two counties had identical rules for making nominations in special elections. Therefore, the lower courts had said, only the State Committee of the party had the power to make the nomination, and since it hadn’t done so by the deadline, the party could have no nominee.

The State Court of Appeals decision is unanimous. It depends on a technicality. The State Board of Elections had put Barclay on the ballot as the Independence Party nominee, and the State Court of Appeals said that his opponent had no standing to challenge that decision. The case is Fehrman v N.Y. State Bd. of Elections, no. 106.

This Texas story says that an IVR poll has found that 17% of the voters who say they plan to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary on March 4, also say they expect to vote for the Republican presidential nominee in November. The same poll finds 22% of the voters who say they will vote for Barack Obama on March 4 expect to vote for the Republican nominee in November.

This is evidence that “raiding” does occur. “Raiding” is the intrusion of voters into party primaries who are not, in their hearts, loyal to the party holding that primary. For years, political scientists have fought over whether “raiding” really occurs in open primaries.

The February 25 New York Times has this op-ed by Geraldine Ferraro, supporting the idea that superdelegates ought to settle the identity of the Democratic presidential nominee. Ferraro’s justification is that Democratic presidential primaries get raided anyway, and therefore the presidential primaries should not be the determining factor in whom the party nominates.

The Missouri Senate Financial, Government Operations & Elections Committee will hold a hearing February 25 (Monday) at 2 pm, on SB 797. This is the bill that fixes the technical glitch in the state’s petition for new parties. The existing law was written in 1993. It said that a party could circulate a petition to qualify itself, before it has chosen its nominees. Unfortunately, due to a typographical error, the 1993 bill contradicted its own purpose by also saying that the petition must list the party’s presidential candidate and presidential elector candidates. SB 797 fixes that typo.