The post made earlier on November 30 discusses U.S. Supreme Court involvement with ballot access cases, or with cases that have ballot access implications. But there are several other interesting election law cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Initiative & Referendum Institute is hoping to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case against a Utah law that says ordinary initiatives only need 50% to pass, except that if the initiative deals with hunting, it needs 66.67% to pass. The case is Initiative & Referendum Institute v Herbert, no. 06-534. The state’s response was due November 20 but does not seem to have been received yet.

Congressman Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, is hoping to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case that alleges the U.S. Constitution is offended when some counties in Florida use touch-screen vote-counting machines with no paper trail, whereas other counties do have a paper trail. The case is Wexler v Anderson, no. 06-401. Florida elections officials had received permission from the Court to file a late response, due November 20, but then they decided not to file any response.

Only in the last year has Kentucky been keeping a tally of how many voters are registered as members of minor parties. Furthermore, when Kentucky started tallying this information, it excluded the voters who had always been registered in minor parties, and only started counting people who had registered in them after the policy started. Therefore, the numbers have been very small.

Nevertheless, they have risen this year. In May 2006, the numbers were: Libertarian 187, Green 102, Constitution 28, Reform 12, Socialist Workers 0.

Now they are: Libertarian 341, Green 173, Constitution 49, Reform 25, Socialist Workers 15.

Kentucky does this tally for any party that has been on the ballot in the last twenty years and is still in existence.

On November 27, Canada held a special election to fill a vacant seat in Parliament. For the first time, a Green Party nominee placed second, outpolling two parties that regularly elect members to the Canadian Parliament. The election was in London-North-Centre, Ontario Province. The district has a large student population. The University of Western Ontario is in this district.

Seven candidates appeared on the ballot. The results were: Liberal 34.9%; Green 25.9%; Conservative 24.4%; New Democratic 14.1%. The other seven-tenths of 1% was split among the Progressive Canadian Party, the Canadian Action Party, and an independent candidate.

Ballot access in Canada, as well as in Great Britain, is equal for all candidates. A petition of 100 signatures plus a filing fee is required for everyone.