Legal reasoning called absurd in Nevada special congressional election
As you may have heard, one of the Senators from my state of Nevada, John Ensign, resigned earlier this month amid an affair and possible ethics violations. His seat was quickly filled by our governor through appointment of Dean Heller, one of our House members. Heller’s House seat was then to be filled by a special election, which our Secretary of State is organizing.
I haven’t really been paying attention to it that much but apparently there’s been a bit of a ruckus over how he’s handling said election:
The legal reasoning used by the state’s top election official to determine how candidates will be chosen for a special election to fill Nevada’s vacant U.S. House seat was “unreasonable and absurd,” a state judge said Monday.
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Secretary of State Ross Miller said the Sept. 13 special election would be an open contest, with the 2nd Congressional District seat going to the candidate who gets the most votes.
Okay, well, I’m not entirely sure how that qualifies as capricious.
But he also set different rules for minor political parties and independent candidates, who would have to be designated by their party executive committee or file a petition with signatures of 100 registered voters to get on the ballot.
Oh, huh. There you go.