North Carolina House Bill 1024 passed the legislature on July 26. It lets 10 counties and 10 cities experiment with Instant-Runoff voting, in local elections in 2007 and 2008.
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The Delaware Attorney General recently ruled that fusion is legal between a major party and a minor party. Specifically, he ruled that the state must print Karen Hartley-Nagle’s name on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House, even though she is already the Independent Party’s nominee for that office.
In 1994, the Delaware Attorney General had ruled that fusion between a major party and a minor party is illegal. However, in 1999, the 3rd circuit had ruled that if a state permits fusion between two major parties, it must permit it between a major and a minor party. Delaware is in the 3rd circuit. Since Delaware for some time has been permitting fusion between two minor parties, the state had no choice but to permit it between a major and minor party this year.
Karen Hartley-Nagle is a registered Democrat who had been an Independent Party nominee for the legislature in 2004. She is not expected to win the Democratic primary for U.S. House this year, but she will be on the November ballot as the Independent Party’s nominee regardless.
Rasmussen Reports released a poll of the Texas gubernatorial race on July 24. It shows Republican Rick Perry 40%, independent Carole Strayhorn 20%, independent Kinky Friedman 19%, Democrat Chris Bell 13%. The poll did not ask respondents about the Libertarian nominee, James Warner.
The Working Families Party will turn in a statewide petition for its lone Massachusetts statewide candidate on July 26. The petition has 9,000 signatures, and only 5,000 are required. This is the 4th statewide qualification effort completed by the Working Families Party this year (the others have been Delaware, Oregon and South Carolina).
The Indiana Libertarian Party nominated approximately 70 candidates for public office this year. The party is ballot-qualified and nominates by convention. Twelve of these nominees will probably not appear on the November ballot. They include the party’s nominee for State Auditor, two U.S. House candidates, and 9 state legislative nominees.
One law requires parties to fill vacancies by June 30. The party followed that law. But another law (that applies only to qualified parties that don’t use a primary) requires a party that intends to fill vacancies, to file another notice 10 days earlier, saying that it intends to fill vacancies. The party had not known about that law. The law had not been enforced in the past, but a new law removes the discretion of state elections officials to overlook it.