The Florida Democratic Party is holding a state convention. On October 27, Mike Gravel became the only person seeking the Democratic presidential nomination who spoke at the Florida meeting. The other contenders stayed away because the Democratic National Committee asked all Democrats running for president not to campaign in Michigan and Florida until after February 5, 2008. All the other Democratic presidential candidates complied. Florida Democratic State Senate Leader Steve Geller thereupon withdrew his previous endorsement of John Edwards, and endorsed Gravel.

The U.S. District Court in Idaho has set oral arguments for Beck v Ysursa, the lawsuit filed by 72 Idaho Republican Party officers, legislators and activists to let the Idaho Republican Party close its primary. The hearing is on November 15. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news. The state will try to get the lawsuit thrown out, since the Idaho Republican Party itself is not a co-plaintiff.

Pennsylvania state officials have decided not to publicize their list of polling places, citing concerns that terrorists could disrupt elections. The Department of State made its decision as a result of terrorist bombings that occurred just days before Spain’s national elections in 2004, spokeswoman Leslie Amoros said.

Critics say the policy runs afoul of the state’s open records law and makes coordinating statewide voter-mobilization strategies more difficult for candidates and political action committees. The state will still give out a specific polling place to a voter inquiry, but won’t release the comprehensive list.

Activists had already been fighting to get access to statewide lists of polling places. It had only been available on a county-by-county basis. “Some campaigns may lack the manpower to gather the information on a county-by-county basis, and some counties are more helpful than others in providing polling place locations,” said Stephanie Frank Singer, the founder of a Philadelphia consulting firm that provides customized lists and data collection for political campaigns and nonprofit groups. Singer said she learned of the policy from an acquaintance whose request for the list was denied a few months ago. She said she is considering challenging the decision.

A case in point this year is the anti-incumbent activist group PACleanSweep, which is urging voters to oust nearly all judges seeking retention because of the 2005 government pay raise debacle. PACleanSweep founder Russ Diamond said the organization obtained a list of all polling places last year as part of its campaign against incumbent lawmakers, although he said state officials have since told him that was a mistake.

“My thought was, ‘Well, the terrorists have won, and democracy takes a back seat,’ ” Diamond said.

Last year, Singer filed a Commonwealth Court lawsuit that sought to limit the cost of obtaining a list of registered Pennsylvania voters from the state. She withdrew the suit after the department agreed to charge a flat $20 fee for the whole list or any number of county lists; the cost was previously $20 per county, or $1,340 for a statewide list.

Singer said she has not decided how to proceed with seeking access to the list of polling places, but she said she would probably file a request for the information under the Right-to-Know Law and appeal to Commonwealth Court if it is denied.