California is the only state that prints a candidate’s occupation on the ballot. This Sacramento Bee story discusses the pros and cons of that policy.
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California held special elections on April 3 for three vacant Assembly seats. Here are the unofficial election returns (scroll down). Democrats won the 54th district seat. In the 39th and 45th districts, no one got a majority so a run-off will be held in June between one Democrat and one Republican.
Joe Mathews, who writes about California government and politics, here writes about how California’s top-two system injures independent candidates.
On April 3, a Maine state trial court issued an opinion in Committee for Ranked-Choice Voting v Dunlap, Kennebec Co., cv-18-24. See this story, which has a copy of the opinion. The opinion says the state must use ranked-choice voting for the upcoming June primary for all federal and state office. Thanks to Jacqui Deveneau for the link.
On April 3, the voters of Wisconsin voted by a 61%-39% margin to continue electing a partisan state office, Treasurer. The legislature had put a ballot measure on the ballot to abolish the office.
Having the Treasurer’s election continue in existence makes it somewhat easier for parties to retain their status as qualified parties. Wisconsin defines a political party to be a group that polled 1% for any of the statewide offices. The only other partisan statewide state offices in Wisconsin are the team of Governor-Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General.