On October 26, the Arizona Secretary of State and Attorney General’s offices let it be known that the state will not appeal the Libertarian Party primary election decision. That decision, handed down in U.S. District Court on September 25, had said that parties are free to exclude independents from voting in their primaries.
On October 28, the Iowa Democratic Party set its caucus date: January 3. It is now likely that New Hampshire will set its presidential primary at a later date within the first half of January. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.
Wayne Allyn Root, a contender for the Libertarian presidential nomination, spoke at the Conservative Leadership Conference in Sparks, Nevada, on October 12. Approximately 500 people attended the conference. The only other presidential candidates who spoke there were Mitt Romney, Duncan Hunter, and Alan Keyes. Root has posted his 35-minute speech at his web site, http://root4america.com. He suggests that if one doesn’t wish to watch the entire speech, the last segment is his best (one may choose to watch parts 1,2,3,4 or 5). Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch.
Alexander Keyssar has written this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times of October 28. It is titled “Dump Winner-Take-All” and analyzes the proposed California Republican initiative to elect one presidential elector from each U.S. House district. Keyssar has written “The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the U.S.”, and is considered the primary expert among historians on the history of voting rights. He is at Harvard. Of course, he argues that if the Republican Party thinks electing one elector from each U.S. House district is good policy, that the national party should be working for this nationwide, not just in states in which the Republican Party would benefit.
George F. Will has written a very scholarly, yet entertaining, column on the bills in Congress to regulate the dates of presidential primaries. See it here, courtesy of Newsweek. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s Electionlawblog for this.
