On February 27, the Tennessee House State and Local Government Committee defeated HB 1273. It would have changed Tennessee from an open primary state to a closed primary state. Tennessee has always had open primaries and the voter registration form has never asked applicants to choose a party. The bill only got 2 votes in committee. Thanks to Michael Drucker for this news.
Israel holds a parliamentary election on April 9, 2019. Here is the wikipedia list of parties participating in the election. There are forty parties participating in the election.
On February 26, the Nevada Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections heard AB 186, the national popular vote plan bill. It has nine Assembly sponsors and three Senate sponsors, all Democrats. The hearing lasted two hours. See this story. Democrats have majorities in both houses of the legislature, and the Governor is a Democrat, so this bill is somewhat likely to pass. Thanks to PoliticalWire for this news.
On February 25, the New York City Charter Commission heard testimony about using Ranked Choice Voting for city primaries and elections. Experts from all across the nation participated, including San Francisco Elections Director John Arntz. See this story. Thanks to Chris Jerdonek for the link.
On Saturday, March 2, the New Mexico House Judiciary Committee tabled HB 93 by a vote of 7-5. It would have let independent voters vote in the partisan primary of that voter’s choice. The bill had previously passed two other committees, the Consumer & Public Affairs Committee, and the State Government and Elections Committee.
The only surviving bill on this subject is SB 418, which would say that any party with its own primary is free to invite independent voters to vote in its primaries. That bill has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. It doesn’t actually change policy, because parties already have the right to invite independent voters into its primaries, due to the US Supreme Court decision Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut. However, putting that into the election code might make it more likely that a party might exercise its right to do that. Thanks to Rick Lass for the news about HB 93.
