Eighth Circuit Agrees with U.S. District Court, and Enjoins Some South Dakota Restrictions on Paid Circulators

Posted on by November 1, 2022
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On November 1, the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion in Dakotans for Health v Noem, 21-2428. The opinion agrees with the U.S. District Court, and says the U.S. District Court had been correct to enjoin some restrictions on paid initiative circulators in South Dakota. The challenged law requires paid petitioners to disclose their name, residential address, email address, phone number, and sex offender status prior to circulating any ballot measure. It requires that all this information be put into a publicly available directory. It voids all signatures collected by any circulator who does not obey this law. And it requires that if any information changes, the circulator must update the information within seven days.

The decision is by Judge L. Steven Grasz, and is also signed by Judges David R. Straus and Jonathan A. Kobes. All are Trump appointees. Here is the 17-page opinion. Thanks to Derek Muller for this news.

New Hampshire Ballot Shows that State Uses Disaggregated Fusion, Except that Election Officials Don’t Release the Separate Totals

Posted on by November 1, 2022
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Here is a ballot for Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, for November 8, 2022. If one scrolls down to County Attorney, one sees that Nick Sarwark is on the ballot twice, once as a Libertarian, and once as a Democrat. The ballots lets Sarwark voters decide whether to vote for him as a Libertarian or as a Democrat.

Similarly, Richard Manzo is on the ballot for County Treasurer twice, and voters can choose which label for him as well.

However, when the election officials tally the votes, they don’t release the separate totals on the election returns website. They merely release the total for each candidate. Presumably, though, anyone can obtain the separate totals on request.

If you click on the link to see the ballot, you must then choose a town. Choose a town in Hillsborough County, such as the town of Hillsborough. The list of towns is in alphabetical order.

Maine Ballots Show Ranked Choice Races on One Side of the Ballot, Other Races on the Other Side

Posted on by November 1, 2022
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This blog post enables readers to see a Maine sample ballot for the November 8, 2022 election. Maine uses ranked choice voting in general elections for federal office, but ordinary voting for state and local office. Maine puts the ranked choice races on one side, and the ordinary races on the other side, of the ballot. See it here.

Arizona Libertarian U.S. Senate Nominee Asks Voters to Vote for the Republican Nominee

Posted on by November 1, 2022
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On November 1, Marc Victor, the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate from Arizona, asked voters to vote for Blake Masters, his Republican opponent. Victor remains on the ballot and a great many votes have already been cast. UPDATE: former Congressman Justin Amash says that he himself, as a Libertarian, disagrees with Victor’s decision. See here.

FURTHER UPDATE: see this Reason article.

Victor said he asked both the Democratic nominee, incumbent Mark Kelly, and Masters, to discuss public issues on a 30-minute zoom call that would be broadcast. Apparently Senator Kelly did not accept, but Masters did. Here is a link to the Victor website, which has a link to his discussion with Masters. Masters did not agree to support the legalization of marijuana; he said it should be a matter of state law. Masters would not outlaw putting a monument to the Ten Commandments on public property. But Victor overlooked both points of disagreement and endorsed Masters.

Evan McMullin is Listed First on Utah General Election Ballots, for the U.S. Senate Race

Posted on by November 1, 2022
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For the November 8, 2022 election, U.S. Senate, independent candidate Evan McMullin is listed first. Utah holds a random sample drawing of alphabet letters every election year. All the letters of the alphabet are placed in order, as determined by the drawing. In 2022, “M” placed closer to the top of the list than any of the other relevant letters (in the Senate race) of “L”, “H”, and “W”. The other candidates are Republican Mike Lee, Libertarian James Hansen, and Independent American Tommy Williams.

Here is the Grand County ballot.

Here is the Utah County ballot.