This story says the Connecticut legislature is likely to meet in special session next month, to consider a bill to move the 2024 presidential primary from late April to early April.
It is very unusual that several states still haven’t made a final decision about the date of their presidential primary, this late in the season. If New Hampshire ends up with a December 2023 presidential primary, we are only four months away from the first primary.
Two prominent journalists, Holly Otterbein and Jonathan Lemire, have this new story at Politico about Democratic Party fears over the 2024 presidential election in relation to Cornel West and No Labels. Although the story is lengthy, there is almost nothing new in it.
A truly original story on this subject would make these points: the two nations most similar to the United States are Canada and Great Britain. Like the U.S., Canada and Great Britain do not use proportional representation nor do they have general election run-offs. But it is unthinkable in Canada for the governing Liberal Party to try to keep the left-leaning New Democratic Party off the ballot, even though Liberal Party candidacies are presumably hindered in their campaign against the Conservative Party by the presence on the ballot of the New Democratic Party. The same point is true for Great Britain, where the Labour Party does not try to keep the British Green Party off the ballot. Ballot access for all candidates in Canada and Great Britain is exceedingly easy and no one ever talks about making it difficult.
There is something wrong with the dominant political culture of the United States. Supposedly neutral commentators seem to think there is nothing wrong with restricting competition. The Politico story could have mentioned that the Democratic Party has taken action to keep its competitors off the ballot in the presidential elections of 1936, 1940, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1976, 1980, 2004, 2020, and already 2024.
The Politico story could also have mentioned that bills to use ranked choice voting in presidential and other general elections have been introduced in various states with Democratic legislative majorities for 24 years, but no legislature had passed such bills until this year when such a bill passed in Oregon, which has a Democratic majority in both houses of its legislature. If Democrats have been worried about “spoiling” for so many decades, why haven’t they passed ranked choice voting in past decades, in states where they had the power to do so?
The one new piece of information in the Politico story is the mention that close associates of Cornel West have been trying to persuade him not to run for president. The article says so far West has rejected such advice.
On August 2, the Mayor of Warren, Michigan, James Fouts, filed a federal lawsuit to be allowed to run for re-election. Fouts v The Warren City Council, e.d., 2:23cv-11868.
He is serving his fourth term. Until 2020, Warren allowed elected city officials to serve five terms. In 2020, the voters amended the law to set the limit at three terms. But the 2020 amendment was silent about retroactive service. Typically when term limits are put in place, or amended for a shorter number of terms, terms served before the law was changed are not counted. But the Michigan Court of Appeals construed the law to bar Fouts.
The first round is August 8, so if Fouts win his lawsuit, he is asking that the August 8 election not count, and that a new first round be held, perhaps in late September. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news. Warren is the third most populous city in Michigan.
The Guardian recently published this article on increasing retirements of county election officials, particularly in presidential election battleground states.
Thanks to Election Law Blog for the referral.
Here is his commentary.
It is certainly anyone’s right to be opposed to the existence and mission of No Labels, but commentary like this, in my opinion, does not lend credence to the anti-Trump movement.
