Writer Dan Conley Thinks 2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries Will be Inconclusive, and National Convention Delegates Will Make the Choice

Posted on by June 6, 2018
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Writer Dan Conley here predicts that the Democratic presidential primaries in 2020 will not settle who the presidential nominee will be, and that the delegates to the national convention will make the actual choice. He points out that Democratic national rules require proportional selection of delegates in all Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses. He also points out that California will hold its primary in 2020 in March, so that many Democrats (under the proportional system) will end up with a fairly substantial number of delegates from California, encouraging them to keep campaigning in the primaries of April, May, and June. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.

North Carolina Legislature Passes Bill, Stopping New Parties from Nominating Someone who Ran in Another Party’s Primary Earlier That Year

Posted on by June 6, 2018
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North Carolina holds primaries in May for parties that have been on the ballot for at least four years. Newly-qualifying parties submit petitions after the primary, and nominate by convention. On June 5, the legislature passed an omnibus election law bill that says newly-qualifying parties may not nominate anyone who had lost another party’s primary earlier that year. The bill, SB 486, passed the House 66-44 and the Senate 30-12.

The part of the bill concerning “sore losers” was prompted by news reports that several candidates who lost major party primaries this year were thinking about seeking the Constitution Party nomination, or the Green Party nomination, this month. The part of SB 486 on “sore losers” is section 3.4 of the bill, amending election law section 163A-953.

San Francisco Mayoral Election

Posted on by June 6, 2018
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San Francisco held a special election for Mayor on June 5. Voters were able to use ranked choice voting for that office. The first place choices were counted first, and they showed London Breed winning. The first-choice preliminary results for the three leading contenders were: Breed 35.64%; Mark Leno 25.92%; Jane Kim 22.84%.

The preliminary results of the second choice votes were released at approximately 1 a.m. They put Leno into a narrow lead, approximately 50.4% to 49.6% for Breed. There are still many uncounted ballots. Thanks to Ross Levin for this news.