The sponsor of North Carolina SB 353 decided to withdraw his bill on July 28. This is the bill that would have provided that each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector. Reportedly, Howard Dean, chair of the National Democratic Committee, asked that the bill be withdrawn. Thanks to Rob Richie for this news.
Michael J. Dubin’s new book Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures 1796-2006 has just been published. To order, see www.mcfarlandpub.com (click the link for newly published books). The book is $45.
Never before has any reference work existed that tells the partisan line-up of each state legislative body, through history. The book will be especially valuable to show the extent to which parties other than the two major parties have elected state legislators.
Dubin is also the author of other very valuable reference books, especially United States Congressional Elections 1788-1997, the only book ever published that lists the vote for all candidates for Congress in U.S. history.
The Arkansas Green Party began its party petition for 2008 on July 28. Under a law passed earlier this year, party petitions require 10,000 valid signatures and must be completed in any 60-day period that the group chooses.
Although the Green Party also successfully did an Arkansas party petition in 2006, at that time the law permitted four months.
On July 26, a Diageo-Hotline Poll was released. 801 voters were sampled July 19-22. The Republican results: Giuliani 20%, F. Thompson 19%, McCain 17%, Romney 8%, Brownback 4%, Paul 2%, Huckabee 1%, Tancredo 1%, T. Thompson 1%, Hunter under 1%, other and undecided 27%.
Democratic results: Clinton 39%, Obama 30%, Edwards 11%, Kucinich 3%, Richardson 2%, Biden 2%, other and undecided 13%.
See here for the California Secretary of State’s explanation of the report issued by her on July 27, concerning security flaws in vote-counting machines used in California.
