Law Professor Vikram Amar has this article in Verdict, about the current initiative to divide California into three states. The article says that because one of the three new proposed states would have a fair chance of voting Republican in future presidential elections, the author of the initiative, Tim Draper, will likely face opposition from the Democratic Party.

Amar says if the National Popular Vote Plan were in place, though, that objection from Democrats would cease to exist. So Amar suggests that Draper, who is very wealthy, ought to support the National Popular Vote Plan.

On September 7, the California Senate passed AB 469 by 30-10. It lowers the number of signatures in lieu of the filing fee. For statewide office, the number falls from 10,000 to 7,000. For U.S. House and State Senate, from 3,000 to 2,000. For Assembly, from 1,500 to 1,000.

The bill also lowers the petition for non-partisan office as well. Current law values four signatures as worth $1 deducted from the filing fee. The bill changes that formula so that three signatures are worth $1.

Mostly, Democrats voted for the bill and Republicans voted against it. One Democrat, Senator Bill Monning, voted “No.” Four Republicans voted yes: Joel Anderson, Anthony Cannella, John Moorlach, and Scott Wilk.

The bill does delete the ability of candidates to submit one petition in lieu of filing fee, and later after the signatures are checked, to submit a supplemental petition. But it makes it possible for the petition in lieu of the filing fee to start 15 days earlier than it was previously allowed to circulate.

Although the bill already passed the Assembly once, the Senate amended it, so it must return to the Assembly next week. It has an urgency clause so needs two-thirds in each house. Of course it already got over two-thirds in each house, each time it was voted on.

The Maine legislature will be in special session in late October. One of the agenda items is ranked choice voting. See this story. Thanks to Electionline for the link.