Tag: Ballot

Image RIO DE JANEIRO — Members of Brazil’s armed forces, who have largely stayed out of political life since the end of the military dictatorship 30 years ago, are making their biggest incursion into politics in decades, with some even warning of a military intervention. The growing appeal of Brazil’s armed forces in politics comes amid a rightward shift in South America and rising authoritarianism in democratic nations including Poland, Hungary, the Philippines and Turkey. Mr. Bolsonaro, the first former military officer to mount a viable bid for the presidency since democracy was restored, recently said he would appoint generals to lead ministries, “not because they are generals, but because they are competent.” The campaigns seize on broad frustrations across Brazil. “This is a cry of desperation against all of this corruption,” said Luciano Zucco, a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel who took a leave of absence from the army this month to run for a state legislature seat. “There are many people trying to create the conditions for that, but for my part, I don’t believe it.” Maurício Santoro, a political scientist at Rio de Janeiro State University, said that while no one in Brazil was calling for a lasting dictatorship, many Brazilians, particularly those who did not live through military rule, found the idea of a short intervention appealing. “You have many people in Brazil who like the idea of the military throwing out the current political class and in six months calling for a new election.” The debate over such an intervention has grown as active duty and retired high-ranking generals have weighed in on political issues in ways not seen since the dictatorship years. General Bôas, the commander of the army, took the highly unusual step in April of issuing a statement on Twitter that was widely interpreted as a warning to the Supreme Court. It was a particularly big decision, because Mr. da Silva was running for president again and appeared to be the front-runner in the race. “We want to adhere to the rule of law as much as possible,” Mr. Mourão said. Military leaders still do not refer to that era as a dictatorship, contending that the armed forces in fact preserved democracy by sparing Brazil from the rule of authoritarian socialists.

I’m not a constitutional law expert, but here’s the argument Hasen acknowledges that the tax-return maneuver is more of a “gambit” than a surefire strategy. “The Supreme Court might, if faced with the issue, hold that state legislators cannot require tax returns of presidential candidates even given state legislatures’ much greater power over presidential elections,” he wrote. He also warned that Republican legislators would almost certainly retaliate in state legislatures that they controlled. I don’t know how the courts will rule, but I would expect it to face some high scrutiny. Allowing states to impart additional standards to get on the ballot is rife for abuse, especially red states or purple states run by republicans. States use winner-take-all rules for assigned EC votes for that state, meaning some states are not worth campaigning in Party identity has become so strong that some states are 'safely' red or blue so, again, not worth campaigning in The Apportionment Act of 1911 has skewed the distribution of Electoral Votes which in turn has made some states meaningless and some overly crucial

A proposal by the billionaire venture capitalist and Bitcoin investor Tim Draper to divide California into three separate states will appear on the November 2018 ballot after the “Cal 3” campaign garnered enough signatures for a statewide referendum. Cal 3 is Draper’s latest effort to break up the country’s most populous state. This time around, Draper cut the number of new states in half, and cleared the requirement for petitioners, reportedly paying canvassers $3 per signature. “Three new state governments will be able to start fresh, to innovate and better serve their people.” If approved, the partition would mark the first division of a US state since the pro-union West Virginia broke from secessionist Virginia during the US civil war. “My guess is [voters] will vote this down, and this will all be a waste of time,” said Jim Newton, a lecturer in public policy at the University of California Los Angeles. “Why three states? Why not 30 states? “Even if this were to pass, it would face a real struggle in Congress, or it would be tied up in legal issues in California, or both.” Vikram David Amar, the dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, has suggested that the Draper proposal, which is written as an amendment to the state constitution, may not pass legal muster. A constitutional revision cannot be placed on the ballot in the same manner as an amendment. “We’ve gotten further and further away from the idea that this is a populous or progressive process,” said Newton.

“I consider him a friend,” Norment said, adding that it was pleasant to be part of the team of senators and House of Delegates members who trudged up to the third floor of the Capitol to tell Northam that the General Assembly was organized and ready to get down to the business of the special session. “He didn’t lecture us,” Norment said. McAuliffe’s style didn’t seem to encourage the kind of collaboration Norment said will be essential to close the gap between a House budget anchored on Medicaid expansion and the Senate Republican majority’s opposition to expansion. No, says Norment. Primary ballot It’s not enough to have the right number of signatures on a petition to be listed on a ballot in Virginia — they have to be qualified voters in the relevant district. Six Democrats are seeking their party’s nod to challenge Comstock in a district that’s been trending Democratic. In a possible sign that nothing is certain in any election, four Democrats are on the primary ballot. Gordon Helsel, R-Poquoson, rethought his longstanding opposition to Medicaid expansion this year and voted for a House budget anchored on the idea of using federal Affordable Care Act money to cover more low-income Virginians. He received about 10 emails from people upset with him — until, that is, he called them back and explained his view: that the federal money could help plug a gap of several hundreds of millions of dollars in the state budget. Talking it over with voters may not always convince them to agree with his change of view, Helsel said, but it is the kind of communication that is supposed to inform both legislator and constituent.