On February 17, the Virginia House passed HB 630. It lets any local jurisdiction use ranked choice voting for elections for its own officers. The vote was 62-34. No Democrats voted “no” and no Republicans voted “yes.”
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Jon Fleischman has this article in the Orange County Register about how Democratic interest groups manipulate the California top-two system. He says in the gubernatorial race, public employee unions, which have a great deal of spending power, will boost one of the two leading Republicans and depress support for the other leading Republican. Their goal is to get one Democrat and one Republican on the general election ballot. They are confident the Democrat would win. They do not like the idea of two Democrats being the only names on the November ballot.
On February 10, the Libertarian Party national committee chose El Paso, Texas as the site for its 2028 presidential convention. There has never before been a presidential convention held in that city. The date is tentatively February 18-21, 2028. If confirmed, that will be the earliest presidential convention held by the Libertarian Party since the 1992 presidential election. Thanks to Independent Political Report for this news.
The Mississippi Senate failed to vote on SC 518, and it is now beyond the legislative deadline for bills to have passed their house of origin. SC 518 would have restored the statewide initiative, which was eliminated by a 2021 ruling of the State Supreme Court. This is the fourth legislative session in a row in which attempts to revive the initiative have failed.
The New York Times has run a lengthy obituary for Edward H. Crane, who died February 10. It mentions his Libertarian Party activism around the presidential election of 1980.