On August 2, the state chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party said that the Democrats will challenge the Green statewide petition. This is only the second time in the last 60 years that any minor party or statewide petition has been challenged in Pennsylvania; the first time was in 2004, when Democrats challenged Nader’s independent petition.
A U.S. District Court in Arkansas will hear the Green Party’s ballot access lawsuit on August 17-18. Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels, 4:06cv-758. The issue is the number of signatures needed for a new party.
On August 1, a neutral poll was published for Maine. In the gubernatorial race, the results are: Democrat 42%, Republican 24%, Green 3%, independent state legislator Barbara Merrill 3%, three other independents combined, under 1%; undecided 27%.
In the U.S. Senate race, the results are: Republican 68%, Democrat 10%, independent Bill Slavick 4%, undecided 18%. Republican incumbent Olympia Snowe is very popular and won her last race in 2000 with 69%.
There are 33 U.S. Senate seats up this year. The only states in which there will certainly be no one on the ballot for U.S. Senate, other than a Democrat and Republican, are Ohio and Rhode Island. It is not yet possible to know whether a minor party or independent candidate for U.S. Senate will be on in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.
An advance unedited version of the annual UN Human Rights Committee evaluation of the United States, issued July 28, 2006, criticizes the U.S.for voting rights practices. Point 35 begins, “The Committee is concerned that about 5,000,000 adult citizens cannot vote due to a felony conviction”. Point 36 begins, “The Committee remains concerned that residents of the District of Columbia do not enjoy full representation in Congress, a restriction which does not seem to be compatible with article 25 of the Covenant.”
