Congressman John Delaney (D-Maryland) has introduced HR 2655, to require top-two primaries for all congressional elections. The text of the bill is not up on the congressional web page, but Delaney’s press release says the text is the same as his HR 5334 from the last session of Congress. Here is the text of the 2014 bill.
In November 2014, Delaney had two ballot-listed opponents, Republican Dan Bongino and Green Party nominee George Gluck. Delaney received 94,704 votes; Bongino received 91,930; Gluck received 3,762. If Delaney’s bill had been in effect, Gluck could not have been on the ballot.
The bill has two co-sponsors so far: Jared Polis (D-Colorado) and Scott Peters (D-California). Thanks to Shawn Griffiths for this news.
They call it the “Open Our Democracy Act of 2014”? It should be the “Silence the Opposition Act.”
A carrot approach would be better:
(1) Designate the first Tuesday after the first Wednesday in September as Open Primary Day.
(a) Partisan primaries for Congress may not be conducted on Open Primary Day.
(b) Top 2 Open Primaries for Congress may be conducted on Open Primary Day (8 weeks before general election day).
(c) States may hold other elections on Open Primary day, so long as all election contests are (i) Top 2 Open Primaries; (ii) nonpartisan primaries; (iii) determinative election for an office; or (iv) ballot measures.
(2) States may provide for the election of candidates who receive a majority of the votes cast in a Top 2 Open Primary for congressional elections (they of course already have this right for non-congressional elections).
(3) States conducting Top 2 Open Primaries on Open Primary Day may comply with the MOVE Act by providing military and overseas voters, a conditional ballot for the general election, on which voters may rank all candidates.
(4) Ballot qualification for all Top 2 Open Primary candidates shall be the same throughout a state.
(a) The filing deadline may be no earlier than July 1st.
(b) States may not require more than the lesser of
(i) 200 signatures;
(ii) 1/10 of 1% of votes cast in the district in the
previous election.
(c) States may not require a deposit of more than $2000. If a candidate receives more than 5% of the primary vote, the deposit will be refunded.
(d) Candidates may offset all or a portion of the deposit with an in lieu of petition, based on a rate of $3 per signature. If the candidate receives more than 5% of the primary vote, the full cash value of the deposit will be paid to the candidate.
(5) Congress will provide funding for transitional and educational efforts by States conducting Top 2 Open primaries.
(6) Election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November must be by majority vote.
(a) Any runoff will be held on the first Tuesday after the first Wednesday in December (5 weeks after general election day).
What an asshole.
I notice that the bill makes no reference to requirements for candidates obtaining a position on the Open Primary ballot. I assume the bill’s authors intend for the states to be allowed to decide on the number of signatures to be collected, or the amount of the filing fee. This of course, may have been by design, so to continue the discrimination which most states impose on 3rd party and Independent candidates. The Democrats and Republicans are determined that our electoral system will be dominated by these two parties. They recognize the growth of the number of people calling themselves “Independents” and this has struck fear in their heart. This type of legislation will help them keep the status quo.
And I hope this bill keeps on having only two co-sponsors and gets nowhere. If not, we, all of us third partiers and independents might end up having to march to Washington DC, thousands, heck, tens of thousands strong preferably, and non-violently let them know we won’t go quietly into the night, via a massive protest. And also have one heck of a lawsuit in court, get the ACLU, etc, to represent us. It’ll be like the last stand of men and elves against the forces of Mordor in the beginning of LOTR.
Down with Top Two!
AI,
States typically have quite reasonable ballot access for candidates for partisan primaries. They don’t want to make it so incumbents spend a lot of effort qualifying.
The authors may not have even considered the issue.