George Skelton, who has been the senior Los Angeles Times politics columnist for many decades, here refers to California’s general election in November as the “run-off.” The reference is near the top of his column.
By federal law since 1872, states must hold their congressional elections in November. If states want a general election run-off, they must hold it after November. Only two states, Louisiana and Georgia, have general election run-offs in congressional elections. All of this was clarified by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1997, Foster v Love.
Skelton has been a vociferous supporter of California’s top-two system since it was first proposed in 2004.
http://uscode.house.gov/
http://uscode.house.gov/browse/prelim@title2/chapter1&edition=prelim
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Title 2
§7. Time of election
The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter.
(R.S. §25; Mar. 3, 1875, ch. 130, §6, 18 Stat. 400 ; June 5, 1934, ch. 390, §2, 48 Stat. 879 .)
Codification
R.S. §25 derived from act Feb. 2, 1872, ch. 11, §3, 17 Stat. 28 .
The second sentence of this section, which was based on section 6 of the act Mar. 3, 1875 and made this section inapplicable to any State that had not yet changed its day of election and whose constitution required an amendment to change the day of election of its State officers, was omitted.
Amendments
1934-Act June 5, 1934, substituted “3d day of January” for “fourth day of March”.
Constitutional Provisions
The first section of Amendment XX to the Constitution provides: “The terms of Senators and Representatives [shall end] at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.”
Time for election of Representatives, see Const. Art. I, §4, cl. 1.
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THE day for THE election —
ANY other day is UN-constitutional for USA Reps —
IE — NO *run-off* election day AFTER the Nov election DAY.
I must dispute Justice Winger’s comment about Foster v. Love
— the LA hacks attempted to elect USA Reps in the LA Oct primary
— BEFORE the Nov election DAY
— violated the above 2 USC 7 — a MAJOR Constitution violation.
THE election DAY needs to be put into constitutions to stop the HACKS from their date machinations.
When did Maine switch to November elections for Congress?
Even if it’s linguistically supposed to be referred to as a general election, it is effectively a run-off. So Skelton is right.
It is not effectively the same as a run-off. The difference is that voters know that the June event is not a real election. That is why the primary turnout is so shockingly law. The California 2014 primary had 25% of the registered votes participating, easily the worst turnout for a California statewide primary in all history. All this data is at the front of the Statement of Votes issued by the Secretary of State for each primary election.
If the June event were really the election, most offices would be filled in June. In most partisan elections for Congress and statewide office and legislature, generally the incumbent runs and gets over 50%, not only in California, but nationally. If the June event really were the election itself, the turnout would be considerably better.
So the real distortion is Skelton’s refering to June as the election itself, which is far from the truth.
CA TOP 2 PRIMARY —
WHAT PERCENT OF THE TOP 1 IN THE TOP 2 PRIMARIES HAVE WON IN THE NOV GENERAL ELECTIONS ???
NO PRIMARIES —
PR AND APPV