On May 8, the voters of Ohio passed Measure One, which will minimize partisan gerrymandering for U.S. House districts. See this story. The vote was 75% in favor.
7
On Wednesday, May 9, a federal lawsuit was filed against Montana’s ban on out-of-state circulators. The lawsuit also attacks the prohibition on paying circulators on a per-signature basis. Pierce v Stapleton, 6:18cv-63. Here is the 32-page complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell, a Reagan appointee.
On May 8, Ohio held a primary for the Republican, Democratic, and Green Parties. The votes aren’t all counted yet, but it appears one-fifth of 1% of the voters chose a Green Party primary ballot.
By contrast, in 2016, only .11% of the voters chose a Green Party primary ballot. And in 2014, only about .07% did so.
Ohio gives all ballot-qualified parties a primary, except that newly-qualifying parties nominate by convention instead. The Libertarian Party expects to be a ballot-qualified party soon in Ohio, but its nominees will not be chosen in a primary.
On April 23, Suffolk University/USA Today released a poll of persons who say they are unlikely to vote in November 2018. Question 3 asks respondents if they are Republicans, Democrats, independents, or “something else.” The results: Democratic 27%, Republican 20%, independent 25%, “something else” 21%, refused 7%.
Another question finds that 57% of respondents favor a multi-party system. Only 22% said they were satisfied with a system that includes only the Republican and Democratic Parties. See this summary of the findings.
California State Senator Ben Allen has introduced a state constitutional amendment, SCA 21, to change certain characteristics of the top-two system. It had originally been set for a hearing in the Senate Election Committee on May 1, but was postponed. Then it was set for the May 15 hearing, but it has again been postponed.