A Florida group that supports top-two says it has rewritten its proposed initiative, and will start to collect signatures soon. The revised measure holds the actual election for state and county office in August, and only if no one gets 50% will there be a runoff in November. However, because federal law requires states to hold congressional elections in November in all districts, for Congress the measure won’t let anyone be elected in August, and the election between the top-two will be in November even if someone running for Congress does get 50% or more in August. See this story.
The story has some factual errors. It says Washington state started using top-two in 2004, but actually Washington started using it in 2008. The story says Nebraska has a top-two system. Nebraska has never had a top-two system. It has semi-closed primaries for president, congress, state executive office, and partisan county office. For legislature it has non-partisan elections with no party labels on the ballot.
It appears that this version is the same as that was submitted in late May and withdrawn a week later. I suspect the rationale was to wait on the SCOTUS decision on the Arizona redistricting commission (ie whether the manner of congressional elections may be regulated by popular initiative). Had the SCOTUS ruled differently, then the legal challenge to the Florida congressional redistricting initiative would have been revived, which would have muddied the waters for the Top 2 initiative in Florida.
It is conceivable that even if the SCOTUS had ruled against the congressional redistricting initiative, they would have accepted initiatives that applied to both state and federal elections. For example, in Oregon, all-vote-by-mail elections were imposed by popular initiative. The narrowest possible reading of the US Constitution would have restricted that to state elections, and required the Oregon legislature to conform federal elections. A broader interpretation would recognize that the US constitution requires common electorates for Congress and the (larger chamber of the legislature). Requiring different voting procedures could in effect disenfranchise congressional voters.
Note that based on ‘Tashjian’, the Nebraska Attorney General determined that Nebraska congressional primaries must be open to all voters.
Washington voters approved Top 2 in 2004. It was only due to the “extraordinary and precipitous nullification of the will of the people” that its implementation was delayed until 2008.
Florida only permits constitutional initiatives. It does not permit statutory initiatives. The initiative does not say that Open Primary will be in August. The primary date is set by statute. Until 2008, the Florida primary was in September (in 2000, there was still time for an October primary runoff). It is only because of the introduction of the Internet and electronic voting machines, that elections now take several times as long as when paper ballots were used, and voters had to travel by horseback to the polling place.
Top 2 Open Primary facilitates the system used in Louisiana, where runoffs are held within a month of the Open Primary, because all possible candidates are known.
The Florida initiative would permit election of congressional candidates once Congress changes the statute.
The NCSL says that Nebraska has a Top 2 system for legislative elections.
The Florida initiative would permit an indication of “nomination” on the ballot, as provided by law.
How many top 2 primaries produce 2 robot party hack extremists ??? — i.e. Stalin and Hitler clones.
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NO primaries.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.