Former New York Assemblymember Richard Brodsky, who served in the legislature for 27 years, has this op-ed in the Albany Times-Union. The op-ed defends fusion voting. The very fact that Brodsky wrote this op-ed suggests there is a real possibility that the New York legislature will abolish fusion voting when it starts work in 2019.
The Ninth Circuit will hear two ballot access cases on Tuesday, March 12, at 9 a.m., in San Francisco. They are the case against the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate in California, De La Fuente v Padilla; and the case against how members of some small political parties get on their own party’s primary ballot in Arizona, Arizona Libertarian Party v Reagan.
On December 27, the plaintiffs in Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit. This is the case that argues the extreme size of California legislative districts violates the U.S. Constitution, by depriving ordinary Californians of an opportunity to influence their state legislators. The State Senate districts have almost 1,000,000 inhabitants; the Assembly districts almost 500,000.
A new Utah law permits cities to use Ranked Choice Voting for elections for city office, starting in 2019. According to this news story, several cities have indicated they want to do that, on a trial basis.
On December 28, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed HB 6595, which makes it more difficult to put statewide initiatives on the ballot. It creates a distribution requirement and also shrinks the time to collect the signatures. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
