On April 23, conference committees in both houses of the Hawaii legislature re-wrote and accepted HB 1248. It is now likely that the amended bill will pass both Houses. It provides that every registered voter would receive a ballot in the postal mail. There would still be vote centers for people who don’t have the ability to receive postal mail.
On April 23, Prince Edward Island held a provincial election. The legislature has 27 seats, but no election was held in one district because the Green Party nominee died just before the vote. That district will be filled later.
Among the 26 seats that were decided, the Progressive Conservative Party won 12 seats, the Green Party won eight, and the Liberal Party won six. Because the Green Party placed second, it becomes the official opposition party.
Before the election, there were 16 Liberals, eight Progressive Conservatives, two Greens, and one independent. See the wikipedia article about the election.
The New York legislature recently enacted a bill setting up a Commission to study public funding for statewide state office. The bill says that the Commission’s plan must be released by December 1. Then, if the legislature does nothing by December 23, the plan has the force of law. The identical bills, S1509c and A2009c, were signed on April 12.
The Commission has also been empowered to eliminate fusion, if it chooses to. So if the commission recommends abolishing fusion, and the legislature does not take action against the Commission’s ideas, then fusion will be abolished. See this story.
On April 23, the Colorado House passed HB 19-1278. Among other things, it increases the number of signatures for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties (but it does not change the presidential ballot access requirement). It raises the non-presidential statewide petition from 1,000 signatures to 10,500 signatures, and imposes a severe congressional district distribution requirement. Now the bill goes to the Senate.
On April 23, the California Senate Elections Committee passed SB 212. It lets non-charter cities and counties use ranked choice voting for their own officers, if they wish to. The vote was 3-1.
