On January 10, the Alabama House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee passed HB 17. It provides that when there is a vacancy in a U.S. Senate seat, there would be no special election until November of the next even year. If this bill had been in effect last year, Alabama would not have held a special election to fill the vacancy created when Jeff Sessions resigned until November 2018. Instead, gubernatorial appointee Luther Strange would have filled the seat during 2018.
Six New Hampshire legislators have introduced HB 1540, which provides that ranked choice voting would be used for all federal and state offices, both in the primaries and in the general election.
The bill has a hearing in the House Election Law Committee on January 23, Tuesday. Thanks to Michael Drucker for this news.
On January 9, HB 1012 was introduced in the South Dakota legislature to alter the definition of “political party”. Current law says a party must poll 2.5% of the vote for any statewide race in the last election, in order to remain on the ballot. The bill would change that so when the vote test is met, the party remains on the ballot for the next two elections. If this bill passes, it will be easier for a party to remain on the ballot.
On January 12, the two largest parties in Germany reached a tentative agreement to maintain their coalition government, weeks after the last election. See this story.
Sandra Jeff, who was a Democratic member of the New Mexico State House 2008-2014, has changed her registration to Libertarian. She plans to seek the Libertarian Party nomination for Secretary of State. The Libertarian Party has its own primary in 2018 in New Mexico, for the first time. See this story.
