On September 11, SB 212 passed the legislature. It now goes to the Governor. It lets non-charter cities and counties use ranked choice voting for elections for their own officers. Currently only charter cities and counties can do that. Thanks to Kevin Sabo for this news.
The California Senate Elections Committee will hear SB 696 on Thursday, September 12, at 9 am in room 2040. This is the bill that forces the American Independent Party to change its name by October 29, 2019, or the party will be disqualified. Here is the Senate Elections Committee analysis.
The Federal Election Commission has just published “Combined Federal/State Disclosure and Election Directory 2019”, a free book that has contact information for election officials in all states. It can be ordered by phoning 800-424-9530. Press “2”. This is the first version since the 2017 version, which had 142 pages.
The Reform Party plans to hold a presidential nominating convention in March or April 2020. It will probably be either in Florida or North Carolina. At least two individuals, Joseph Wendt and Darcy Richardson, are seeking the party’s nomination. Both live in Florida.
An initiative is currently circulating in Florida to establish a top-two system for state and local office. According to this story, the initiative is being supported by Mike Fernandez, a wealthy individual who has already spent $6,000,000 on the petition. It has 621,000 signatures already, so is likely to qualify for the November 2020 ballot.
Initiatives in Florida cannot pass unless they get at least 60% of the vote. No top-two initiative has ever received as much as 60% of the vote, and no top-two initiative has ever passed except in Washington state in 2004 and California in 2010. Top-two initiatives have been defeated in Arizona, South Dakota, California in 2004, and in Oregon twice, in 2008 and 2014.
Here is the summary of the measure, as printed on petitions.
