The Oregon Senate Rules Committee has introduced SB 1512. It provides that Oregon will join the National Popular Vote Compact, if the voters approve the idea in November 2018. See this story.
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Proponents of a top-two system have put an initiative on the South Dakota ballot for 2018. According to this story, the committee has received $205,000, most of it from New York.
UPDATE: see this story.
On January 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down the state’s U.S. House districts as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, and ordered new districts in time for the 2018 election. The decision is only three pages and will be supplemented later. The case is League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v Commonwealth, 159 MM 2017. If the legislature doesn’t draw new districts by mid-February, the court will draw them. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
Here is a dissent, signed by two members of the Court. It says the Pennsylvania Supreme Court should have waited until the U.S. Supreme Court issues its pending opinions in somewhat similar cases. However, the Pennsylvania decision is based on the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the cases pending in the U.S. Supreme Court are based on the federal Constitution.
One of the two dissenters also wrote this dissent.
The House Elections Law Committee in New Hampshire will hear HB 1540 on Tuesday, January 23. This is the bill to provide for ranked choice voting for federal and state office. The Concord Monitor has this op-ed in support of the idea, authored by Tiani X. Coleman, a leader of the group that advocates better treatment for independent voters.
Also, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has this op-ed by Sam Blankenship, in support of Proportional Representation.
Michael R. Strain, a Bloomberg View writer, here suggests that the U.S. would be better off with a multi-party system, combined with an end to a fixed term for the chief executive.