Three Democratic legislators in Colorado have introduced SB 19-42, to have Colorado join the National Popular Vote Plan. They are Senator Mike Foote, and Representatives Emily Sirota and Jeni Arendt.
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On January 8, Wyoming State Senator Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) introduced SF 65. It would use ranked choice voting in primaries and general elections. It appears it would also provide that the top four candidates for any particular office (as chosen in the August primary) should appear on the November election, and voters in November would use ranked choice-voting. Here is the bill. It has four co-sponsors. It is not clear whether the bill would affect presidential elections.
New York State Senators James Skoufis and Allesandra Biaggi are about to introduce a bill that makes it illegal for any qualified party to be named “Independent Party” or “Independence Party.” See this story. Both are Democrats. In 2018, the Independence Party nominated Senator Skoufis’ Republican opponent, and it nominated another Democrat to run against newly-elected Senator Biaggi.
The Independence Party has been ballot-qualified in New York starting in 1994. It seems probable that courts would find First Amendment protection for the party, if the bill were to pass.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia introduced HR 51 on January 3. Already it has 155 co-sponsors. See it here. Thanks to Mike Drucker for this news. There have been similar bills in many past sessions of Congress, but none of them has ever had that many co-sponsors, and it is very early in the session, so it will probably gain additional co-sponsors in the coming weeks.
In 2014, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s organization created the Women’s Equality Party, and petitioned to get it on the ballot for Governor and Lieutenant Governor (but no other offices). The party, of course, nominated Cuomo for Governor as its own nominee.
Although New York has had many parties that were created by one of the two major parties, the Women’s Equality Party, which went off the ballot in November 2018, stands out as one that was unusually passive and never had any significant election activity for any federal or state office. In 2016 and 2018, years in which it had its own primary and was able to nominate for any partisan office, only once did it nominate anyone who hadn’t sought a Democratic or Republican nomination for the same office earlier that year. In 2018 it did nominate Brian Phillips for Assembly, 140th district. He had not sought the nomination of a major party for that office that year. He is therefore unique in the party’s history. The party did not appreciate his candidacy, and on its 2018 web page, where it listed all its other nominees, it did not mention him. The party never polled as much as 6% for any of its nominees for federal or state office. It did have seven nominees for federal or state office in 2018 who were not Democratic nominees, but all seven of them were Democrats who had lost that year’s Democratic primary. One of them was Congressman Joseph Crowley, who refused to drop his Women’s Equality nomination for the general election even though he had lost the Democratic primary to newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In 2018, the party received this share of the vote in districts in which it had nominees: U.S. House .96%; State Senate .96%; Assembly .96% (it’s just a coincidence that the percentage is the same for all three types of office). For statewide office, it polled .45% for Governor, .59% for Comptroller, and .69% for U.S. Senate.
In 2016, it had polled 1.27% in the districts it contested for U.S. House; 1.11% for State Senate; and 1.19% for Assembly. While it was on the ballot, it never contested any State Supreme Court races. It was the only “fusion” party in the state to skip those races. Also in 2016, it had polled .47% for Hillary Clinton for President. In 2014, the year it had gained party status, it had polled 1.41% for Andrew Cuomo for Governor.