Canada holds a parliamentary election on October 19. On August 15, a Leger Poll was released showing that the New Democratic Party is leading. This party has never before formed a national government in Canada. Leger is the largest Canadian polling company. See this story.
On August 14, a unanimous decision of the Washington State Supreme Court fined the state $100,000 per day until the legislature expands state financing for public schools. Ever since 2012 the Court had been warning the executive and legislative branches that the State Constitution requires government to fund education. Because most education spending in Washington state is from local taxes and local government, not from the state, inevitably public schools in poor communities are underfunded compared to wealthy communities.
This New York Times story says the problem has been prolonged because the two houses of the legislature are controlled by different parties. The story says, “Washington’s House of Representatives is controlled by Democrats, while the Senate has a coalition majority caucus led by Republicans.”
Washington already needed three special sessions of the legislature this year to pass a budget, along with the regular session. Washington also needed three special legislative sessions in 2013. It is somewhat likely that 2015 will now see a fourth special session.
Washington and California are the two states that use a top-two system. Independent Voting, a group composed primarily of former activists of the New Alliance Party, is well-funded and has an extensive advertising campaign which teaches that top-two systems promote harmony and good government in state legislatures. In truth, whether a state uses top-two, open primaries, semi-closed primaries, blanket primaries, or closed primaries, makes little difference. State legislatures, and Congress, generally run smoothly when one party controls all branches of the government, and generally suffer gridlock under divided government. Independent Voting literature does not mention Washington state’s experience with top-two. Washington has been using top-two starting in 2008. In California, the Democratic Party controls all branches of state government, and the budget no longer needs a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature, so there is no gridlock. Independent Voting talks a great deal about California, but never mentions that California’s gridlock was solved in November 2010 when the voters passed Proposition 25, ending the two-thirds rule for the budget.
In 2011, California created a new category of persons who have been convicted of a felony but are no longer in prison. The new classification is called “community supervision.” Unlike parole, people on community supervision are no longer subject to jurisdiction of the state prison system. Instead they are under the jurisdiction of county law enforcement. Persons convicted of the most serious felonies can not qualify for community supervision.
The California Constitution denies the right to vote to felons in prison and it also denies the right to vote to persons on parole. After the new community supervision program was launched, the California Secretary of State ruled that community supervision is the functional equivalent of parole, and said persons in community supervision can’t register. In 2012 a lawsuit was filed against that ruling directly with California higher courts, but they refused to hear the case. On February 4, 2014, a new lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Alameda County. On May 7, 2014, the Alameda County Superior Court ruled that community supervision is not the same as parole, and struck down the ban on registering to vote for people on community supervision.
The state appealed, but on August 4, 2015, the state changed its mind and dropped its appeal. The California voter registration forms must now all be reprinted. The existing form says, under the applicant’s signature under penalty of perjury, “I am a U.S. citizen and will be at least 18 years old on election day. I am not in prison, on parole, serving a state prison sentence in county jail, serving a sentence for a felony pursuant to subdivision (h) of the Penal Code section 1170, or on post release community supervision.” The last few words must now be deleted. The case, which is now terminated, was Michael Scott v Padilla, A142139.
The Tampa Bay Times has this editorial, recommending that Florida switch to an open primary system, not a top-two system.
On August 12, the Sixth Circuit refused to hear Erard v Michigan Secretary of State, 14-1873. This is the case in which the Socialist Party, which is not ballot-qualified in Michigan, argues that Michigan discriminates against new parties, relative to old parties. Michigan requires approximately twice as many signatures for a newly-qualifying party to get on the ballot as it requires votes for an already-qualified party to remain on.
