On February 26, the Washington State Senate passed SB 5074 by 26-20.  It says that if a presidential elector votes for someone other than the person who received the most popular votes in the state, then that person is deemed to have resigned and will be replaced by someone chosen by the other electors.

It seems peculiar for the legislature to pass this bill now, when soon there will be a decision from the Washington State Supreme Court on whether the U.S. Constitution does permits states to punish presidential electors for voting in unexpected ways.

Connecticut held special elections in five legislative districts on February 26.  In the 39th House district, centered on New London, the Green Party nominee polled 28.52%.  The Democratic nominee won the seat with 51.33%.  The Republican Party nominee polled 11.67% on the Republican line and 3.04% on the Independent Party line.  An independent candidate polled 5.44%.  The Working Families Party did not enter this race.

Here are the results.  First, at the top, under “select election”, choose the top option, February 26, 2019.  Then click on the 39th district House choice.

The other special elections were in the State Senate districts 3, 5, and 6; and the State House district 99.

Arizona HB 2201 has passed two committees in the House.  It converts all mayoral and city council races to partisan elections.  Currently Tucson is the only city in Arizona with partisan elections.

Republicans on the Election Committee and the Rules Committee voted for the bill; Democrats opposed it.  There is some reason to believe that the bill, if signed into law, would violate the Arizona Constitution, at least for charter cities.  Some years ago, when the state passed a law requiring all cities to hold non-partisan elections, the city of Tucson won a ruling that charter cities have a right to decide for themselves whether to have partisan or non-partisan elections.