The may 30 Santa Cruz Sentinel has this editorial, suggesting that California’s “top-two open primary” system, passed by the voters in June 2010, is not necessarily a helpful idea. The Sentinel endorsed Proposition 14 back in 2010. Also of interest in this Mother Jones story about the U.S. Senate race in California. The article is […]

On May 29, Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch told the press that the Montana independent petition deadline (for candidates running for office other than President) will be May 29. As previously noted, late on Friday, May 25, a U.S. District Court had invalidated the statutory March deadline. Obviously, for the Secretary of State to […]

This link to the Texas Secretary of State has primary election returns for the Democratic and Republican Parties.

On May 22, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Hawaii issued a 55-page ruling in Kostick v Nago, 1:12-cv-184. The panel denied injunctive relief to a group of voters who had sued to alter the redistricting plan for state legislative districts. The Hawaii Constitution says redistricting should be based on permanent residents, so the state […]

On May 29, Angus King submitted 5,800 signatures so as to appear on the November 2012 ballot in Maine as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate. He needs 4,000. The law does not permit him to submit more than 6,000. See this story.

According to this news story, Mitt Romney recently said he needs 50.1% of the vote to be elected President. In the context, it seems obvious he meant the popular vote. Of course, this is not true. Presidents who have been elected with less than 50% of the popular vote include John Quincy Adams, James Polk, […]

On May 25, U.S. District Court Judge Sam Haddon ruled that Montana’s March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates is unconstitutionally early. The case is Kelly v McCulloch, cv-08-25. Montana’s petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates had been in June between 1973 and 2007, but in 2007 the legislature moved it to March. Here is […]

See this story, which explains that the Kansas legislature has not passed any bill drawing new congressional or legislative districts reflecting the 2010 census. A panel of three federal judges will determine the lines, but the hearing on May 29 is less than two weeks before the state’s deadline for primary candidates to file.

Businessman Alex Pires will attempt to qualify for the November Delaware ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate. See this story. He is well-known enough to have already appeared on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox network interview show. No one has ever petitioned onto the Delaware ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate. Before […]

On May 28, Egyptian election officials released a final, official tally for the presidential election. See the results here at wikipedia (scroll down to the end of the article). The candidate who received the most votes ended up with 24.77%, less than the unofficial tally had reported. The second-place finisher ended up with 23.66%, also […]