The California Supreme Court will hear the Santa Monica case over at-large voting for city council members on August 18. The plaintiffs are trying to end at-large elections for city council. They argue that at-large elections in Santa Monica injure Hispanic voters. The State Court of Appeals had upheld the at-large system. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.
The case is Pico Neighborhood Association v City of Santa Monica.
On May 12, the Vermont Senate passed HB 429 by 16-14. It bans “sore losers”. But because the Senate amended the bill, it must return to the House, so it still hasn’t passed the legislature.
The bill also requires write-in candidates to file a declaration of write-in candidacy if they want their write-ins tallied. And it makes it more difficult for a write-in candidate in a primary to be declared nominated. The write-in candidate must receive a number of write-ins in the primary that equals the number of signatures he or she would have needed to get on the primary ballot. In addition, the write-in candidate’s total in the primary must equal at least 10% of the number of votes cast for that office in that primary.
On May 23, the Oklahoma legislature passed SB 375, which moves the date of the non-presidential primary from the last Tuesday in June to the third Tuesday in June. The bill has no effect on the petition deadline for a new party. But it moves the filing deadline for non-presidential independent candidates one week earlier.
On May 18, Delaware SB 57 passed the House. It is now through the legislature. It provides that presidential electors who don’t vote for the presidential candidate of their party are to be replaced with someone else. The vote in the House was 31-8.
This news story about the criticism of No Labels and its registration drive to get on the ballot in Maine starts with a large picture of the Maine voter registration form. The Secretary of State has charged that some workers for No Labels have tricked applicants into registering into the party. But as one looks at the form, it is difficult to understand how anyone would not understand the purpose of the form.
