California State Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) has introduced SB 641. It allows the Governor to require that Ranked Choice Voting be used in special congressional and legislative elections, if he determines that all the counties inside the particular district are capable of holding such an election. Thanks to Paula Lee for this news.
On March 1, the Hawaii House passed HB 210, which provides for ranked choice voting for all partisan primaries.
See the text here. Now the bill goes to the Senate. Only nine representatives voted “no.”
There is a similar bill in the State Senate, SB 450, but it hasn’t moved yet.
On February 26, Chicago held non-partisan elections for Mayor and Alderman. Two members of Democratic Socialists of America were elected to the Board of Aldermen, and three more are in run-offs.
Even before the election, DSA had one member on the Board, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa. He was re-elected. Also winning outright was DSA member Daniel La Spata.
Qualifying for the April 2 runoff are Rosanna Rodriguez-Sanchez, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, and Andre Vazquez. See this story.
According to Michael Drucker, the New York State Democratic Committee will meet on Monday, March 4. On the agenda is a resolution that would ask the New York legislature to ban fusion, the practice of letting two parties jointly nominate the same candidate.
On February 26, the Arizona House defeated HB 2127 by 23-36. The bill would have moved the deadline for a candidate to file for the primary from 90 days before the primary, to 120 days. The bill would have had the indirect effect of moving the petition deadline for a non-presidential independent candidate from May to April.
