Former California legislator Gary K. Hart has this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, recommending that the California Constitution be changed so that legislative vacancies would be filled by some method other than special election. He reports that only 25 states fill state legislative vacancies with special elections. He mentioned some of the methods used by the other states, but he did not mention that in some states, the political party of the legislator who resigned or died can fill the vacancy, with input from certain public officials. For example, a party may suggest three names and the Governor might choose one from that list. This system requires special procedures when the legislator who resigns or dies was an independent.
Candidate/incumbent rank order lists of replacements.
Default – legislative body to fill vacancy with person of same party, if any.
The effort should be aimed at eliminating vacancies, or require candidates running for another office mid-term to be filled at a general election.
Going back to 1989-90. Larry Stirling resigned as senator just a few months into a 4-year term to be named a municipal judge in San Diego. Lucy Killea was elected in the special election, which triggered a special election for here assembly seat. If Stirling had not been appointed, there would have been no special elections.
1990-1 John Garamendi resigned mid-term of a senate term after being nominated for Insurance Commissioner. This triggered a subsequent assembly vacancy. If Garamendi had to resign to run for Insurance Commissioner there would have been no need for a special election.
1991 John Seymour resigned from the senate to be appointed US Senator to fill the vacancy caused when (Senator) Pete Wilson had been elected governor. If California had held a special election for US senator, then Seymour is unlikely to have run. Or better yet, Wilson should have resigned his senate seat to run for governor. This also triggered an assembly election.
1991 John Doolittle resigned mid-term from the senate to be elected to Congress. This also triggers an assembly election.
1990 Mike Roos quit 3 months into his assembly term. This is a perfect setup for corruption under an appointment system. Legislator gets sweetheart job in private sector, Blagojevichist Governor makes an appointment.
1992 Alan Robbins resigned after a plea deal to federal racketeering charges. Do you really want to appoint a replacement after the previous office holder is shipped off to prison?
1993-1994 Senator Wadie Deddeh resigned with a year left in his senate term, because there was a special November election that year. But there was still a runoff, plus a triggered assembly special election.
1994 Assemblyman Pat Nolan resigns after conviction on racketeering charges.
1993 Senator Rebecca Morgan resigns 6 months into her term, to take advantage of the November 1993 special election.
1993 Assemblyman Sam Farr resigns after running for Congress to replace Leon Panetta who had quit to become budget director.
1993 Senator Mike Thompson resigned from one senate district to run in another district.
1993 Assemblyman B.T.Collins died.
1993 Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan resigned to take position at UCSF-Fresno medical program.
1993 Senator Don Rogers resigned after it was revealed that he had renounced his US and California citizenship in a lame attempt to avoid taxes.
So that is 14 cases in 6 years, where only one vacancy was for truly legitimate reasons. An appointment system is likely to lead to additional resignations and corruption.
If senate terms were reduced to two years, many vacancies can be avoided, as senators jump to other offices mid-term or get bored over 4 years. This would eliminated many of the cascading special elections.
Alternatively, if a legislator runs in an election for another office midterm, there would also be an election for their current position.
And finally switch to all-mail elections using IRV for special elections. Paper ballots would be used on which voters would use numbers to rank their choices. Citizen-tellers would count the ballots.