After the Supreme Court went on summer recess,* lingering Big V related activity still went on. After all, the MLB has yet to begin. But, presidential primaries are running their course, with Biden (even on a lagging tracker) now having enough delegates to win in the first round with superdelegates taking part. New York and New Jersey continued to count their absentee ballots. Looks like Sanders (via strength in some district, since his state-wide numbers is under 15%) will get at least two delegates in NJ and around twenty in New York. Oh, and sometime in late June without us realizing it, someone was nominated to the Life and Liberty Party.
And, Howie Hawkins (like the Libertarian Party nominee, a long term safely bland option) was nominated to the Green Party. Well, that just happened last weekend. On Saturday, only around three months late, Louisiana's results came in. Lots of options, including someone named Robby Wells. The "others" split around 20% with Sanders and Warren combined getting about half. So, Biden received all the delegates. Four "others" split the non-Trump vote, which here was about four percent. Note for other races, there is one big "jungle primary," which means we might have a run-off in December. Fun fun.
Puerto Rico Republicans had an online poll of party leaders in early June and selected Trump. At first, it looked like maybe neither party would have an actual primary, but perhaps pushed by the courts stopping New York doing that, Puerto Rico eventually scheduled the Democratic presidential primary for Sunday. Recall too that because of our stupid electoral college system, its U.S. citizens residents cannot actually vote for President in November. This is so even though its approximately four million people is more than multiple state. This is not getting the attention it deserves and while D.C. becoming a state is actually as close to being a thing as it ever was really should address territorial voting and interests as a whole.
Anyway, though the 270 to Win etc. only has a few thousand voting, nearly all the delegates have been estimated. The joker here is that Bloomberg (both him and Sanders island-wide got around thirteen percent, but perhaps went over the floor in certain districts, which is also how the floor works) got a couple delegates this time. Not sure if this is from long ago ballots or if more recent people voted for him. The last time someone other than Biden or Sanders (putting aside apparently two unaffiliated delegates in Kentucky, maybe) received delegates was March 3rd.
Anyway, though the 270 to Win etc. only has a few thousand voting, nearly all the delegates have been estimated. The joker here is that Bloomberg (both him and Sanders island-wide got around thirteen percent, but perhaps went over the floor in certain districts, which is also how the floor works) got a couple delegates this time. Not sure if this is from long ago ballots or if more recent people voted for him. The last time someone other than Biden or Sanders (putting aside apparently two unaffiliated delegates in Kentucky, maybe) received delegates was March 3rd.
[NY aside. Was it worth it to allow New York to have a presidential primary even though the results suggest Biden received most of the delegates and four out of five votes? Yes. A large chunk of the voters already would show up for other races. Many of those who did not resided in upstate areas much less affected by the Big V. Extended absentee voting was available and the extra work there is likely not excessive. Things were better by late June, but they also could have limited in person voting even more if necessary.
OTOH, the voting very well could have been done better, including providing means (there was a 15% or so refusal rate by one estimate I saw) to allow correction of errors. The confusion was seen by the people at my polling place not even knowing at the start there were two ballots (the presidential ballot being added after litigation) and a message later in the day suggested that they weren't the only one.
And, basic democratic principles warranted giving the people a chance. Finally, not doing so resulted in feelings of being cheated that should be avoided whenever possible. No other state -- though again Puerto Rico seemed to be thinking about it -- found it necessary to simply cancel the presidential primary. As is, not having a Republican presidential primary was somewhat dubious.]
OTOH, the voting very well could have been done better, including providing means (there was a 15% or so refusal rate by one estimate I saw) to allow correction of errors. The confusion was seen by the people at my polling place not even knowing at the start there were two ballots (the presidential ballot being added after litigation) and a message later in the day suggested that they weren't the only one.
And, basic democratic principles warranted giving the people a chance. Finally, not doing so resulted in feelings of being cheated that should be avoided whenever possible. No other state -- though again Puerto Rico seemed to be thinking about it -- found it necessary to simply cancel the presidential primary. As is, not having a Republican presidential primary was somewhat dubious.]
Tuesday involved other state races, which will continue into September. Alabama (Republican) and Texas (both parties) had run-offs and the "let's get rid of Susan [Collins]" Maine congressional primary race. Susan Collins herself is running unopposed. Jeff Sessions is in his 70s. Time to retire, big guy. The race is ugly and let us recall that the move is (which people expect) to replace Sen. Doug Jones, who is a perfectly respectable honorable senator. With some troll. But, it's Alabama, so though I won't give up on it, it's an uphill battle.
The main race in Maine is Sara Gideon vs. longshots to go after Susan Collins. An interesting bit of news there -- Bre Kidman is the first openly non-binary person to run for US Senate. Texas has multiple races from earlier on because candidates did not receive a majority of the vote. This is better really than some races in let's say New York, where a fraction of the voters (a House seat represents around three quarters of a million people) of the district decide things with maybe as low as around a third of the vote determining things. That is a safe blue seat where the winner of the primary tends to clinch things. M.J. Hegar or Royce West for senator would be the most important. Maine has ranked choice voting so avoids runoffs. BTW, there has been some talk that Biden actually has a chance in hell to win Texas.
[I'll update if there are any surprises in the top races. BTW, Trump's old personal physician is running in a House race in Texas.]
Okay. Well, there is now one (Connecticut) primary left in the presidential race but still a significant number of state races. I'll do a clean-up entry next month with the final numbers of races such as New York as appropriate. Bloomberg actually getting delegates suggests even now a bit of news is possible. Of course, the big thing will be who the veep will be. Will not have scheduled entries for the state races, but they are important in various instances and overall given local government is quite relevant.
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* As seen by the death penalty cases, and there might be additional ones as more people are executed, summer recess does not mean inaction. So, e.g., the House asked CJ Roberts for accelerated action in the Trump case just decided. The Supremes also put out the October calendar, basically filled with cases that was postponed from this term (which let us recall does not end until the first Monday in October).
Also, RBG is in the hospital again, raising the usual "OH.MY.GOD" comments. But, have not seen anything that makes this any different than multiple other cases. She's 87. Yes. But, we have to rely on her hanging in like she has for years.
The main race in Maine is Sara Gideon vs. longshots to go after Susan Collins. An interesting bit of news there -- Bre Kidman is the first openly non-binary person to run for US Senate. Texas has multiple races from earlier on because candidates did not receive a majority of the vote. This is better really than some races in let's say New York, where a fraction of the voters (a House seat represents around three quarters of a million people) of the district decide things with maybe as low as around a third of the vote determining things. That is a safe blue seat where the winner of the primary tends to clinch things. M.J. Hegar or Royce West for senator would be the most important. Maine has ranked choice voting so avoids runoffs. BTW, there has been some talk that Biden actually has a chance in hell to win Texas.
[I'll update if there are any surprises in the top races. BTW, Trump's old personal physician is running in a House race in Texas.]
Okay. Well, there is now one (Connecticut) primary left in the presidential race but still a significant number of state races. I'll do a clean-up entry next month with the final numbers of races such as New York as appropriate. Bloomberg actually getting delegates suggests even now a bit of news is possible. Of course, the big thing will be who the veep will be. Will not have scheduled entries for the state races, but they are important in various instances and overall given local government is quite relevant.
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* As seen by the death penalty cases, and there might be additional ones as more people are executed, summer recess does not mean inaction. So, e.g., the House asked CJ Roberts for accelerated action in the Trump case just decided. The Supremes also put out the October calendar, basically filled with cases that was postponed from this term (which let us recall does not end until the first Monday in October).
Also, RBG is in the hospital again, raising the usual "OH.MY.GOD" comments. But, have not seen anything that makes this any different than multiple other cases. She's 87. Yes. But, we have to rely on her hanging in like she has for years.
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