New Hampshire HB 48, which eases ballot access for parties, has a third subcommittee hearing, on October 17. This meeting will probably settle on what exactly should be in the bill.
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Oregon supporters of the “top-two” primary system are circulating an initiative petition to put that idea before Oregon voters in November 2008. Meanwhile, the State Supreme Court is receiving briefs, arguing over what the ballot title ought to be. Supporters of the initiative are suing the Attorney General because his ballot title refuses to refer to the initiative as an “open primary.” Opponents of the initiative are counter-suing because the Attorney General’s Ballot Title doesn’t mention that the initiative would restrict the November ballot to just two candidates. The case is Keisling v Myers, S055161.
Oregon supporters of the “top-two” primary system are circulating an initiative petition to put that idea before Oregon voters in November 2008. Meanwhile, the State Supreme Court is receiving briefs, arguing over what the ballot title ought to be. Supporters of the initiative are suing the Attorney General because his ballot title refuses to refer to the initiative as an “open primary.” Opponents of the initiative are counter-suing because the Attorney General’s Ballot Title doesn’t mention that the initiative would restrict the November ballot to just two candidates. The case is Keisling v Myers, S055161.
On October 10, the St. Joseph County, Indiana, Green Party persuaded the county Elections Board to revise the system for counting write-in votes. The new system will enable Greens to know how many write-in votes they receive on election night. However, the new system also slightly compromises the secret ballot. The new system provides that voters who cast a write-in vote put their ballot in the “auxiliary bin” of the machine that tallies the optical scan ballots, instead of feeding the ballot into the main slot on the machine. That way, the ballots in the auxiliary bin can be quickly separated out (after the polls close) and the write-ins tallied on election night. St. Joseph County includes South Bend, and Greens have been running a vigorous campaign for their write-in candidates for South Bend city office.
On October 10, Ontario voters chose a new provincial government. In addition, they were asked if they want to use proportional representation for future provincial legislative elections. Exit polls and early returns indicate that the question received support from only 37% of the voters.
This was Ontario Province’s first ballot question in 83 years, and many voters arrived at the polling place, unaware that any question was on the ballot. Proportional Representation would not have taken effect unless it had received at least 60%. A somewhat similar proposal in British Columbia a few years ago received 57%. It also needed 60% to go into effect.