California State Senator Darrell Steinberg, the President pro Tem of the Senate, plans to introduce a state constitutional amendment. It would let California Governors appoint state legislators, when a vacancy occurs. See this story.
California State Senator Darrell Steinberg, the President pro Tem of the Senate, plans to introduce a state constitutional amendment. It would let California Governors appoint state legislators, when a vacancy occurs. See this story.
Obviously one more step to get a tyrant Donkey emperor in control of CA forever.
Candidate/incumbent rank order lists for replacements.
Alexander Hamilton, who had wanted the President to apoint all state governors, would have been happy with this type of proposal.
If the news article is correct, then San Diego County spent $41 per vote cast for each of the two special elections.
About 56% of San Diego County voters voted by mail in November 2012. Assuming that percentage was the same for Assembly District 80, then there were 61,402 mail votes, and 48,052 in-person votes.
In the special election, there were 21,441 mail ballots, and only 4,018 in-person votes. Return turnout for mail voters was 35%, but only 8.4% for in-person voters.
So California should switch to all-mail special elections. They can use paper ballots. Permit ranking of candidates, and you eliminate the need for a runoff.
All the ballots are returned to one location (or a few locations in the case of a multi-county district). And with a single office on the ballot, it is eminently feasible to use simple numeric rankings “1”, “2”, “3”, etc. with a hand count, performed by citizen tellers.