On April 26, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the number of U.S. House seats that each state will have in the coming five elections.
Texas gained two seats.
These states each gained one: Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon
These states each lost one: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia.
It is somewhat surprising that Rhode Island kept both its seats. Some had predicted that it would lose one of them.
On April 20, the Michigan House Elections & Ethics Committee heard testimony on HB 4319 and HB 4320, which would provide that each U.S. House district elect its own presidential elector. The authors are Representatives Beau Matthew LaFave (R-Iron Mountain) and Jeff Yaroch (R-Richmond). See this story. The Committee hasn’t voted yet on the bills.
On April 20, the North Dakota legislature passed SB 2271, on the subject of the National Popular Vote Plan. Originally the bill provided that North Dakota election officials would not release the state’s presidential vote totals until after the electoral college had voted in mid-December. But the bill was amended before it passed. Now it says that the legislature opposes the National Popular Vote Plan, and during the next year it will study how to prevent the plan from being enacted. It also calls on Congress not to approve the plan, should enough states pass it so that it goes into effect. Here is the text.
On April 17, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed SB 1110, which requires that statewide initiatives obtain the signatures of 6% of the voters in all 35 legislative districts. Idaho thus becomes the first state in history to require an initiative to show support in every legislative district. See this story.
The Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives has now published “Statistics of the Presidential & Congressional Election of November 3, 2020” in booklet form. It is 79 pages. Anyone may receive a free copy by phoning 202-226-5200.
The Clerk has been publishing similar books for 100 years now, every two years.
