MAINE RANKED CHOICE VOTING SURVIVES

On November 8, 2016, Maine voters passed an initiative to use ranked choice voting in all federal and state primaries and general elections, except for president. But then on May 23, 2017, the State Supreme Court issued an advisory opinion saying the state Constitution does not permit ranked choice voting for general elections for state office. Nevertheless, the initiative is still law.

On June 23, the Maine State Senate passed LD 1625, a bill to repeal ranked choice voting. But on June 27 the House amended the bill to leave ranked choice voting in place for primaries, and for general elections for Congress, but not general elections for state office. The House vote for the amendment was 79-66. The Senate rejected that amendment by 15-20, so the bill died. With no bill to alter ranked choice voting having passed this year, the law still requires that it be used in 2018 and for future elections. Although the legislature is still in session for a few more weeks, it will not revisit ranked choice voting, and will concentrate on the state budget.

Proponents of ranked choice voting expect the state to implement ranked choice voting for 2018 primaries, and for 2018 general elections for Congress. If the state won’t do that, they will sue.

On June 28, the North Carolina House passed HB 656, the ballot access bill that had unanimously passed the Senate in April. The House vote was 107-7. All seven "no" votes were cast by Republicans. Unfortunately, the House amended the bill, and on June 29 the Senate rejected the House amendments, so the bill still hasn’t passed.

The bill will go to a conference committee, but the legislature will adjourn before that can be carried out. However, it will meet again on August 3, and on that day can pass conference committee bills.

The Senate version lower the requirement for a newly-qualifying party from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote (94,221 signatures) to 10,000. The House version lowers it to one-fourth of 1%, or 11,778.

The Senate version lowers the number of signatures for a statewide independent from 2% to 5,000 signatures. The House version lowers it to 1.5% (70,666 signatures). This is the biggest divergence between the Senate and House versions.

Both versions somewhat ease the distribution requirement for statewide petitions. Currently both types of petition need 400 signatures from each of four U.S. House districts. Both bills lower that to three districts.

Also, the House version eases the independent candidate petition deadline, from April to June. The independent deadline had been in June since 1981, until the 2017 legislature passed another bill moving the deadline to April. That was a mistake, because in 1980 a U.S. District Court in North Carolina had struck down the old April deadline, in Greaves v North Carolina Board of Elections. The legislature is aware of the 1980 decision, which is why the House moved the deadline back to June (none of this has any relation to the deadline for new party petitions, which continues to be in May).

The House version has a provision that has nothing to do with ballot access. Currently the state requires runoff primaries if no one gets 40%. The House version lowers that to 30%.

The House bill (but not the Senate bill) has a provision saying if a party that is not otherwise on the North Carolina ballot placed its presidential nominee on the ballot in the previous presidential election in at least 40 states, then its presidential nominee will be on the ballot automatically in the upcoming presidential election. However a party that uses this provision would not be on the ballot for any other office.

Only once before in history has any state put a party on the ballot in that state, depending on its success in other states. That was Oklahoma, which provided that any party that was not otherwise on the Oklahoma ballot, but which had polled 10% of the vote for any statewide race in any other three states, would automatically be on in Oklahoma. That law was in effect 1913-1923.

Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee in 2016, was on in 44 states, so under the House version, the Green Party is automatically on the ballot for president (but no other office) in 2020. Parties that use this method for getting on the ballot also get their own presidential primary.

On May 26, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan let HB 529 take effect. It lowers the number of signatures for a statewide independent from 1% of the registered voters (over 40,000) to 10,000. He didn’t sign the bill but he didn’t veto it, so it is now law.

There had been some fear that the Governor would veto the bill. Last year he had ordered the signature reduction provision removed from the omnibus election law bill sponsored by the State Board of Elections, which seemed to show he was hostile to the improvement.

On June 23, Maine Governor Paul LePage let LD 1571 become law. Although he didn’t sign it, he didn’t veto it either, so it takes effect.

The bill improves ballot access for newly-qualifying parties. It moves the deadline to qualify from December of the year before the election, to January of the election year. This is still too early.

The bill also gives a newly-qualifying party two elections, instead of one, to meet the requirement to remain on. A party must have at least 10,000 registrants who actually cast a ballot in the general election (it doesn’t matter who they vote for). As a result of the bill, the Libertarian Party is now on for the 2018 election. It does not yet have 10,000 registrants. It had 5,616 as of November 2016. A new tally will be revealed on July 5, 2017. Its membership will probably be higher because the voter registration form now lists it as a choice. The law requires 5,000 registrants for a party to get on the ballot. This bill only exists because the Libertarian Party won injunctive relief last year against the December 2015 deadline. Libertarian Party of Me v Dunlap, 2:16cv-00002.

In the last forty years, twenty-nine other states have also made it easier for parties to remain on the ballot. The only states in which no party, other than Democratic and Republican, has been ballot-qualified during the last twenty years are New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Georgia for district (as opposed to statewide) office.

South Dakota proponents of a top-two system have said they will try to qualify an initiative for the 2018 ballot. They need 27,741 signatures by November 7, 2017. The same people put an initiative on the 2016 ballot, which received 44.5%.

On May 23, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 44. It says that candidate petitions (including independent candidate petitions) need not be checked by election officials. Instead, they are deemed sufficient if they appear to have enough signatures and if no one challenges them. The new law does not apply to petitions to recognize a new political party.

The bill also restores the need for primary candidates running for statewide judicial offices to submit a petition. This part of the bill may have an impact on whether Democrats run for all the statewide partisan judicial races. Between 2004 and 2014, no Democrat ran for at least one of the statewide judicial posts, because each major party candidate in the primary needed 950 signatures (50 from each of the 19 judicial districts). But in 2016, when the petition requirement was eliminated, Democrats ran for all the seats. Now that the petition requirement is back, it is somewhat likely that Democrats won’t run a full slate in 2018. That, in turn, if it happens, will make it easier for minor parties to poll 5% for at least one of the statewide offices and thereby remain on the ballot. Because Democrats ran a full slate in 2016, the Green Party was unable to poll 5% for any statewide race and it went off the ballot, and the Libertarian Party barely survived, exceeding 5% in only one race, for Railroad Commissioner. The party got 5.2% for that office.

On June 11, Puerto Rico held a vote on the future political status of the island. The vote was: statehood 502,801; independence or virtual independence 7,786; retain the existing Commonwealth system 6,823; blank votes 984.

This overwhelming vote for statehood was marred by the low turnout. Only 22.93% of the registered voters participated.

On June 6, U.S. District Court Judge William O. Bertelsman, a Carter appointee, struck down a Kentucky campaign finance law that discriminates in favor of the Republican and Democratic Parties, and against all other parties. Shickel v Dilger, e.d., 2:15cv-155.

The law, section 121.015(3)(b), said that individuals could give $5,000 to a "caucus campaign committee", which was defined as one of these groups: "the House Democratic caucus campaign committee, the Senate Democratic caucus campaign committee, the House Republican caucus campaign committee, or the Senate Republican caucus campaign committee."

Kentucky individuals are only allowed to contribute $2,000 to candidates for state or local office, so the ability for an individual to contribute $5,000 to a legislative campaign committee is a relatively permissive campaign finance limit. But, obviously, that higher limit only applies to the Republican and Democratic Parties.

The case had been filed in 2015 by two Kentucky Libertarian candidates and a Republican legislator. The Republican legislator was in the case because the case also challenged a law making it illegal for a lobbyist to give anything of value to a state legislator. That law was also struck down because it is vague and, if taken literally, almost absurdly draconian. The decision says it could even apply to a drink of water.

On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will hear Gill v Whitford, over whether Wisconsin legislative district lines are so stacked in favor of Republicans that the result is an unconstitutional gerrymander. The lower court had struck down the boundaries.

A bill is moving through the California legislature that changes the primary date from June to March, for all office. On June 20, the bill, SB 568, was amended to apply to midterm years as well as presidential years, and in that form it passed the Assembly Elections Committee the same day. The previous version, which had already passed the Senate, only applied to presidential years.

The amended bill represents a serious threat to the top-two system used in California since 2011. It is already clear that top-two keeps all minor party candidates off the November ballot (unless they happen to be in races with only a single major party member). The Ninth Circuit has already said that keeping minor party candidates off the general election ballot is constitutional if they are permitted to run in a primary election that is close to November.

But the Ninth Circuit has said that if the primary were far from November, then Anderson v Celebrezze (a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that invalidated a March petition deadline for independent candidates) would likely mean the system would be unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit said this in 2012 in Washington State Republican Party v Washington State Grange, 676 F.3d 784, on page 794.

So far, SB 568 has strong support. It passed the Senate 32-6, and passed the Assembly Elections Committee 4-1. It is now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

On June 7, an independent voter in North Carolina filed a lawsuit against the law that says only members of the two largest parties may serve on an election board. Crowell v Bipartisan State Board of Elections, m.d., 1:17cv-515.

On June 21, the United Utah Party filed a federal lawsuit to place its nominee, Jim Bennett, on the ballot in the special U.S. House election set for November 7, 2017. The state accepted the party’s petition, which was submitted in May, but says it was submitted too late for the party to participate in that particular election. United Utah Party v Cox, 2:17cv-655.

Utah has no detailed election laws for special U.S. House elections. It only has regulations set forth recently by the state elections office. At a status conference on June 26, Judge David Nuffer, an Obama appointee, set a hearing for July14, but he also said that unless the state comes up with a strong reason why the party should not be allowed to run in that election, he expects to rule in favor of Bennett. Bennett is the son of former U.S. Senator Robert Bennett, who was unseated in the Republican primary in 2010 by a more conservative Republican, Mike Lee.

On June 26, Congressman Don Beyer (D-Virginia) introduced a bill that would establish proportional representation for U.S. House elections in states that have at least six seats. The type of proportional representation in the bill is sometimes called Single Transferable vote, and sometimes called Choice voting. It is Ranked Choice Voting as applied to multi-winner elections.

States with five or fewer seats would not use proportional representation, but they would use Ranked Choice Voting. Also, the bill requires states to set up nonpartisan districting procedures. The bill doesn’t have a bill number yet. To learn more about the bill, see Fairvote.org, or google "Fair Representation Act."

Michigan: in 2016 the state had repealed the straight-ticket device, but then a group sued to preserve it, and that lawsuit is still pending in U.S. District Court. While it is pending, the device is still in use. On June 28 the Michigan legislature passed HB 4177, which removes party logos from the ballot. That change will help the state win the lawsuit. The nexus between the straight-ticket device and party logos is somewhat comical. Proponents of the device say that if the device is removed, then some voters will think they can cast a vote for all nominees of a party by drawing a circle around the logo. That fear disappears if there are no logos.

Texas: on June 1, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 25, which repeals the straight-ticket device.

North Carolina: on June 5, the Court agreed with a lower court that the state’s legislative districts are an illegal racial gerrymander. North Carolina v Covington, 16-1023. The legislature must now redraw the districts in time for the 2018 election.

federal law: on June 19, the Court unanimously struck down a federal trademark law that says no trademark can be issued that disparages any persons. Matal v Tam, 15-1293. The decision may help lawsuits against state laws that relate to restrictions on how candidates may be listed on the ballot, or what they can say in state Voter Pamphlets. The basis for the decision is the free speech part of the First Amendment. Election materials, and trademark registry, have much in common. In both cases, the vehicle for the speech is a government resource (the trademark registry in the case of trademarks, and the ballot or voter pamphlet in the case of elections). But the fact that the government is involved did not save the trademark restriction.

Suffragette – My Own Story, by Emmeline Pankhurst. First pubished 1914. Republished 2015 by Hesperus Press Limited, London, 400 pages.

Although most people are probably aware that women had to engage in intense political activism to gain the right to vote in Great Britain and the United States in the late nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century, probably few are aware of how ferocious that fight was, especially in Britain. Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the foremost fighters for women suffrage in Britain. She wrote her book giving the history of the fight, in 1914, before that fight had been won. Britain granted voting rights to women age 30 and above in 1918, and then expanded it for women age 21-29 in 1928.

The film Suffragette, released in 2015, showed how intensely many women activists suffered during the struggle, but it didn’t explain why the women’s tactics were so extreme. The film showed the 1913 incident in which suffragette Emily Davison sacrificed her life to advance women’s suffrage. She went to Epson Downs, one of Britain’s most important race tracks, on the day when King George V and Queen Mary were going to be in attendance. Davison, without warning to anyone, rushed onto the race track just as the horses were thundering past. She collided with the King’s own horse and was trampled to death.

The film also showed other militant tactics, such as setting post office pillar boxes on fire, and smashing windows in government buildings, and burning down a house under construction that belonged to a senior cabinet member. The film also showed women in prison, engaging in hunger strikes and being forcibly force-fed. But it didn’t explain why the protests were so militant.

The book by Pankhurst gives a riveting history of the earlier years, when more customary tactics were used. Women repeatedly were promised that a woman’s suffrage bill would be introduced at some point in the future. But, over and over, decade and decade, these promises were not kept. Demonstrations attracting tens of thousands of participants seemed to make no difference. Finally the movement became very disruptive. Women activists carried on a campaign to boycott the 1911 census. They once succeeded in renting a box at the opera next to King George’s box. At intermission, they addressed the king and the entire audience with a voice amplifier. They slashed valuable paintings in leading museums, forcing the government to temporarily close down many art museums. They broke thousands of windows in government and commercial buildings.

The book is riveting, for any reader who is interested in protest movements trying to make social change.

California: AB 469 has passed the Assembly and the Senate Elections Committee. It shrinks the number of signatures for petitions in lieu of a filing fee, but allows fewer days to circulate. Statewide petitions drop from 10,000 to 6,500. U.S. House and State Senate petitions go from 3,000 signatures to 1,800. Assembly petitions go from 1,500 to 900.

Delaware: HB 89, which moves the primary from September to April, passed the Senate committee on June 29.

Maine: LD 31, the bill to make it more difficult to place statewide initiatives on the ballot, by requiring petitions to meet the signature threshold in each of the state’s two U.S. House districts, failed to pass.

New York: AB 3052, the bill to move the independent candidate petition deadline from August to May failed to pass.

North Carolina: the bill to move the primary from May to March failed to pass. If it had passed, it would have moved the independent candidate deadline from April to February.

On May 18, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pittman upheld the Texas sore loser law as applied to presidential primaries. Kennedy v Pablos, w.d., 1:16cv-1047. The decision did not discuss the point that the true candidates in November are the candidates for presidential elector, not the presidential candidate. Nor did it discuss the U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, the 1995 case that said states cannot add to the qualifications to be on the ballot for federal office. The case had been filed by Rocky De La Fuente last year. The decision says that the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision Storer v Brown upheld sore loser laws. That 1974 decision, however, did not deal with presidential primaries.

On June 23, Political Scientists Eric McGhee and Boris Shor published "Has the Top Two Primary Elected More Moderates?" The 36-page research paper finds that the top-two system has not elected more moderates in Washington state; it has not elected more moderate Republicans in California; it has not elected more moderate Democrats to Congress in California; but it may have elected more Democratic moderates to the California legislature.

However, it says the reason for the more moderate Democrats in the California legislature may be that California’s legislative term limits law was eased a few years ago; or by the moderation may have been caused by a change in the rules as to how budgets pass; or may have been caused by the nonpartisan redistricting process that started at the same time that top-two passed.

STATE	REQUIREMENTS		SIGNATURES OR REGISTRATIONS OBTAINED				DEADLINES
	FULL PARTY	CAND	LIB’T	GREEN	CONSTI	WK FAM	Pres Party	Pres. Indp.
Ala.	35,413	35,413	0	0	0	0	June 5	June 5
Alaska	(reg) 8,925	#3,213	already on	(rg) *1,684	*383	0	June 1	Aug. 21
Ariz.	23,041	(est) #40,000	already on	already on	0	0	March 1	May 30
Ark.	10,000	10,000	*finished	0	0	0	January 2	in court
Calif.	(es) (reg) 65,000	65 + fee	already on	already on	*326	0	January 2	March 9
Colo.	(reg) 1,000	#1,000	already on	already on	already on	0	Jan. 10	July 12
Conn.	no procedure	#7,500	already on	already on	0	already on	– – –	Aug. 8
Del.	(est.) (reg) 680	(est.) 6,800	already on	already on	*288	*381	Aug. 21	July 15
D.C.	no procedure	#3,000	already on	already on	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	Aug. 8
Florida	0	pay fee	already on	already on	already on	0	Sep. 1	July 15
Georgia	54,306	#51,912	already on	*0	*0	*0	July 10	July 10
Hawaii	750	25	already on	already on	*10	0	Feb. 22	June 5
Idaho	13,809	1,000	already on	0	already on	0	Aug. 30	March 9
Illinois	no procedure	#25,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	June 25
Indiana	no procedure	#26,700	already on	0	0	0	– – –	June 30
Iowa	no procedure	#1,500	already on	0	0	0	– – –	Aug. 17
Kansas	16,776	5,000	already on	0	0	0	June 1	Aug. 6
Ky.	no procedure	#5,000	already on	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	Aug. 14
La.	(reg) 1,000	#pay fee	already on	already on	210	0	May 17	Aug. 17
Maine	(reg) 5,000	#4,000	*already on	already on	0	0	*Jan. 2	June 1
Md.	10,000	*10,000	already on	already on	0	0	Aug. 6	Aug. 6
Mass.	(est) (reg) 45,500	#10,000	already on	(reg) 5,709	169	39	Feb. 6	July 31
Mich.	32,261	30,000	already on	already on	already on	0	July 19	July 19
Minn.	147,247	#2,000	0	0	0	0	May 1	June 5
Miss.	be organized	1,000	already on	already on	already on	0	March 1	March 1
Mo.	10,000	10,000	already on	already on	already on	0	July 30	July 30
Mont.	5,000	#10,685	already on	*1,000	0	0	March 15	May 29
Nebr.	4,880	(es) 121,000	already on	300	0	0	Aug. 1	Sept. 3
Nev.	10,785	250	already on	(reg) 4,306	already on	0	June 3	June 3
N. Hamp.	21,746	#3,000	already on	0	0	0	Aug. 7	Aug. 7
N.J.	no procedure	#800	0	0	0	0	– – –	June 5
N. M.	2,565	15,390	already on	already on	*100	0	June 28	June 28
N.Y.	no procedure	#15,000	can’t start	already on	can’t start	already on	– – –	unsettled
No. Car.	*11,778	*70,666	already on	*3,000	0	0	May 16	June 14
No. Dak.	7,000	1,000	already on	0	0	0	April 15	Sep. 3
Ohio	54,965	5,000	*28,000	already on	0	0	July 3	May 7
Okla.	24,745	pay fee	already on	0	0	0	March 1	April 13
Oregon	22,046	18,279	already on	already on	already on	already on	Aug. 28	Aug. 28
Penn.	no procedure	5,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	Aug. 1
R.I.	16,203	#1,000	0	0	0	0	Aug. 1	July 10
So. Car.	10,000	10,000	already on	already on	already on	already on	May 6	July 16
So. Dak.	6,936	2,775	already on	0	already on	0	in court	April 24
Tenn.	33,816	25	*7,000	*0	*0	0	Aug. 16	April 5
Texas	47,086	47,086	already on	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	May 19	June 28
Utah	2,000	#1,000	already on	*2,300	already on	0	Nov 30, 15	March 15
Vermont	be organized	#500	already on	0	0	already on	Jan. 1	Aug. 7
Virginia	no procedure	#10,000	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	June 12
Wash.	no procedure	#pay fee	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	can’t start	– – –	May 18
West Va.	no procedure	#6,516	already on	already on	0	0	– – –	Aug. 1
Wisc.	10,000	#2,000	already on	already on	already on	0	May 1	June 1
Wyo.	5,036	5,036	already on	*0	*0	*0	June 1	Aug. 27
TOTAL STATES ON			38*	21	12*	5	“	“

#partisan label permitted.
*change since Dec 1 2016 issue.
Chart assumes North Carolina SB 656 has been signed.

On May 26, two Maine Democratic State House members said they had changed their registration to "independent." They are Denise Harlow and Ralph Chapman. They had supported Bernie Sanders last year, and they are unhappy with the Democratic Party because of its stance on an environmental issue. There are now five independents in the Maine legislature. Harlow and Chapman are both unable to run for re-election in 2018 because of term limits, but they could run for State Senate.

California: U.S. House, district 34, run-off, June 6: both candidates are Democrats. Jimmy Gomez 25,569; Robert Lee Ahn 17,610.

Georgia: U.S. House, district 5, run-off, June 20: Republican Karen Handel 134,595; Democrat Jon Ossoff 124,893.

Iowa: State House, district 22, June 27: Republican Jon Jacobsen 1,069; independent Carol Forristall 803; Libertarian Bryan Jack Holder 98; write-in Democrat Ray Stevens 465.

Montana: U.S. House at-large, May 25: Republican Greg Gianforte 190,520; Democrat Rob Quist 169,214; Libertarian Mark L. Wicks 21,682.

South Carolina: U.S. House, district 5, June 20: Republican Ralph Norman 45,076; Democrat Archie Parnell 42,341; American Party Josh Thornton 319; Libertarian Victor Kocher 273; Green David Kulma 242.

It is interesting to compare the number of votes cast in each of the U.S. House elections included above.

On June 13, Standish, Maine voters elected Peter Starostecki to the Town Council. He is a registered Green.

On June 27, New Hampshire Representative Brandon Phinney announced that he had changed his registration from Republican to Libertarian. He is age 29 and is in his first term. He is the sole representative from the Strafford 24^th district, and plans to run for re-election in 2018. The Libertarian Party now has three state legislators in New Hampshire, all of whom joined the party in 2017.

On June 7, the Colorado Secretary of State said that the Unity Party now has over 1,000 registered members, so it is a qualified party. The other qualified parties in Colorado are Democratic, Republican, Constitution, Green, and Libertarian. The Unity Party is a centrist party.

New Jersey elects its Governor and legislature on November 7, 2017. There are seven gubernatorial candidates, those of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, and Constitution Parties. There are also two independents. For the legislature, there are five Green Party nominees, five Libertarians, and 19 independent candidates. For Governor, this is the lowest number of candidates since 1989, when there were six candidates.

On June 8, the United Kingdom held a House of Commons election. The number of seats won by each party is: Conservative 317; Labour 262; Scottish National 35; Liberal Democrat 12; Democratic Unionist 10; Sinn Fein 7; Plaid Cymru 4; Green 1; Independent Unionist 1. No party won a majority of the 650 seats.

On May 31, a televised debate including the leaders of seven parties was held, except that the Conservatives sent a substitute for Prime Minister Theresa May.