On January 30, Congressmember Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin) introduced HR 7300. It would ban ranked choice voting in federal general elections. It has many other provisions as well, including a requirement that voters in federal elections must show photo ID in order to vote at the polls. For postal ballots, a photocopy of ID must be enclosed, although overseas military are exempt.

The bill has 24 co-sponsors, all Republicans.

The bill seems to be worded so as to prevent individuals for voting for a slate of presidential electors. It says, “Sec. 305. A State may not carry out a general election for federal office in the State using a voting system that permits a voter to vote for more than one candidate for the same office.” But in all fifty states, current law provides that a voter may cast a vote for multiple candidates for presidential elector. Even Maine and Nebraska allow all voters to vote for two at-large candidates for presidential elector.

On January 30, the Los Angeles Times published this story about the California gubernatorial race. It says this is the most unsettled race for California Governor in at least 25 years. It does not mention the top-two system.

The California Secretary of State has released a new registration tally, as of December 30, 2025. See it here. The purpose of this tally is to determine if any new parties have qualified. None came close. No new party has qualified since 2011, when Americans Elect qualified. It was removed from the ballot in November 2014. Parties qualify by having registration membership of .33% of the current state total. The requirement is now 76,204 members.

The largest unqualified party that is still trying to qualify is the Common Sense Party, which has 14,399 members. No Labels has more, but because No Labels is no longer interested in qualifying, it does not request a tally. But it probably still has over 40,000 registrants.

The percentages for the qualified parties are now: Democratic 44.96%; Republican 25.14%; American Independent 4.10%; Libertarian 1.00%; Peace & Freedom .65%; Green .488%.

The percentages at the last tally, the October 2025 tally, were: Democratic 44.93%; Republican 25.22%; American Independent 4.07%; Libertarian 1.01%; Peace & Freedom .64%; Green .490%.