The Kansas House Elections Committee has introduced HB 2108, which would establish a straight-ticket device. Kansas repealed the device in 1923. The device is especially harmful to independent candidates, because they don’t get listed in the straight-ticket area of the ballot. The bill was suggested by Secretary of State Kris Kobach. See this story.
Richard, any chance you could provide a crib sheet for all of this STV activity for us. It is beginning to get confusing: Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Michigan, and now Kansas – Against, For, For, Against, Against, For? Thanks. PS: At the 42:30 mark of today’s, Wednesday Jan 28 MetroNews Talkline program, radio host Hoppy Kervheval discusses West Virginia’s STV abolishment bill with sponsor and Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump: http://wvmetronews.com/shows/talkline/
The essential information is that in the last 50 years, nine states have repealed the device, and no state has brought it back. It is down to only eleven states: Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
Bills to repeal are pending in Iowa, Michigan, and West Virginia.