The District of Columbia Board of Elections has posted a registration tally for Dec. 31, 2019. Here are the percentages: Democratic 75.63%; Republican 5.85%; Green .74%; Libertarian .35%; independent and other 17.43%.
The percentages in October 2018 were: Democratic 75.95%; Republican 6.11%; Green .77%; Libertarian .26%; independent and other 16.91%.
Los Angeles County is using new vote-counting machines in the March 2020 primary. On January 22, the city of Beverly Hills sued the county over what appears to be a huge design flaw in the new machines. City of Beverly Hills v Logan, Superior Court, Los Angeles County, 20stcp-292. Here is the Complaint. The Complaint says that in any race with more than four candidates, the four candidates who happen to be listed first are displayed on a screen, and the voter must take a particular action on the machine to see the names of the other candidates for that same race. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On January 21, a forum was held at the University of San Diego by several groups that are interested in elections. The purpose of the forum was to consider a top-four system using ranked choice voting in the second round. The sponsoring groups were the League of Women Voters of San Diego, the Independent Voters Project, Fairvote, and RepresentUS.
It is very noteworthy that the Independent Voters Project co-sponsored this meeting. The Independent Voters Project has been a major proponent of California’s top-two system. Here is an article about the meeting published on Independent Voters News.
In my opinion, a top-four system would be far better than top-two, but a top-four system is still basically irrational. In both a top-two system and a top-four system, there are no party nominees. If society wants to abolish party nominees, then a rational system would only have one round of voting, combined with ranked choice voting. The whole purpose of ranked choice voting is to make single round elections feasible. That saves money for election administration, cuts down on the cost of campaigning, and eases the burden on voters of having to make multiple trips to the voting booth.
Also a top-four system would still shut out minor party candidates from the general election, in races for Governor and U.S. Senator, especially when no incumbent is running. When no incumbent is running for either of those two offices, there are invariably four or more well-funded, well-publicized major party members running. Minor parties wouldn’t place in the top four, and that would cut down on the range of ideas presented in the general election season.
The Courthouse News Service has this detailed article about the January 22, 2020 decision that overturned the Kentucky deadline for the nominees of convention parties to file a declaration of candidacy.
On January 22, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard sued Hillary Clinton for saying on the air in October, 2019, that Gabbard is a “Russian agent.” The same interview with Hillary Clinton also suggested that Jill Stein was a Russian agent. The case is Gabbard v Clinton, 1:20cv-558. It has not yet been assigned to a judge. Here is the Complaint.
