On July 31, one day before the deadline, the Pennsylvania Green Party submitted approximately 100,000 signatures. This is the largest number of signatures collected by any state’s Green Party since the California Green Party obtained 100,897 registered members in late 1991, in order to qualify for the California ballot.
On July 31, the 5th circuit heard Texas Democratic Party v Benkiser, no. 06-50812. See here for an account.
On September 14, the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on HR 5388, the bill to increase the size of the U.S. House by one (a seat which would go to Utah) and also give the District of Columbia a voting member.
On August 9, a California Superior Court in Sacramento will hear a case brought by several county units of the California Republican Party, to overturn section 8605 of the California Election Code. Sonoma County Republican Central Committee v McPherson, 06-cs-01078. The issue is whether the California Constitution (as amended in 2004) overrides the election code that requires a very large number of write-ins for anyone to be nominated by write-in votes at a party primary. The candidate-plaintiff in the case, Raylene Wiesner, received 687 votes in the June 2006 Republican primary for Assembly, 7th district. No one else received any votes for that position, but the Secretary of State won’t place her name on the November ballot because her write-in total was below 1,683 (1% of the vote for that office in the last general election).
The New York Times of July 31, 2006 has a lengthy story on Aaron Russo’s film “America: From Freedom to Fascism”. The story erroneously says “Russo sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president in 2004 but dropped out because of ill health.” Actually, Russo did seek that nomination actively, and did not drop out, and was instead defeated at the party’s national convention on the third ballot.
