On March 16, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed HB 75. It requires county election officials to administer ranked choice voting for any city that wants to use that system to elect its own officers. So far, this is the first 2021 bill signed into law that advances ranked choice voting.
Last year, the New York definition of party was changed. The old definition was a group that had polled 50,000 votes for Governor. The new definition is a group that polled 2% for the office at the top of the ticket (president in presidential years; governor in midterm years).
If this law had been in effect in 1900, the Socialist Party would not have gained qualified status in 1900. Eugene Debs did not poll much as 1% in New York that year, much less 2%. In reality, the party did win qualified status that year; it polled the necessary 10,000 votes for Governor (back then, New York elected a Governor every two years). Also, in 1936, Norman Thomas did not poll as much as 2% for president in New York, and the party would have lost its qualified status that year. In reality it did retain its status in 1936.
The Law Preservation Party would have lost its qualified status in 1932 because it did not run a presidential candidate. Although the Law Preservation Party has largely been forgotten, it had substantial support in 1930 and 1932. It was the vehicle for voters who wanted to keep prohibiton of beverage alcohol.
The Communist Party was qualified in New York 1932 through 1936, but under the new law, it would never have been a qualified party. It never polled as much as 2% for either president or governor. It was a surprisingly strong party in New York, however. It elected members to the New York city council in partisan elections in 1941, 1943, and 1945.
The Right to Life Party, which had qualified status 1978 through 2002, never polled as much as 2% for president, and would have lost its status in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000. Nor did it receive 2% for Governor in 1982, 1994, and 1998.
The Conservative Party, which gained qualified status in 1962, would have gone off the ballot in 1964 because it didn’t have a presidential nominee that year.
On March 22, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Level the Playing Field v Federal Election Commission, 20-649. The plaintiffs included the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. The case challenged the FEC’s determination that the Commission on Presidential Debates is not breaking federal campaign laws when the Commission pays for the costs of general election debates with contributions from corporations. Federal law does not allow corporations to donate to federal candidates.
On March 8, the Georgia Senate passed SB 202 by 32-20. It would provide that overseas absentee voters use ranked choice voting in general elections for partisan office. It would also move the date for general election run-offs for all other voters from nine weeks after the general election, to four weeks after the general election.
Thus, if the bill would have been in effect in 2020, the two U.S. Senate general election runoffs would not have been on January 5, 2021. They would have been on December 1, 2020. Generally Republicans Senators voted for the bill, and Democratic Senators voted against it.
The bill also provides that future special elections would have partisan nominees. Currently, Georgia special elections have no party nominees. Candidates file and get on the ballot for the special election as individuals, and no one needs a petition. That is why in Georgia’s special election for the short U.S. Senate seat last year had a Green Party member (labelled as such) on the ballot, the first time the Green Party had ever had a candidate with the party label on the ballot for a Georgia congressional race. See this story about the bill. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
Two federal lawsuits are pending to challenge the order of candidates on primary ballots in New Jersey. Both were filed in 2020 by Democratic primary candidates. Unlike all other states, New Jersey primary ballots do not simply list all candidates for a single office in a particular spot on the ballot. Instead candidates are grouped in “party-column” format, which the candidates preferred by the local party officers listed in a single column in the top-most or left-most part of the ballot, and others placed far away in different columns.
Both cases are assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson, a Bush Jr. appointee. The cases are Mazo v Way, 3:20cv-8174, and Conforti v Hanlon, 3:20cv-8267. Both cases have been moving slowly, but in a month all briefs will have been filed.
