On September 24, both houses of the North Carolina legislature passed HB 373. However, it only passed by 52-49 in the House. It moves the presidential primary from February to March 15. It moves the primary for other office from May to March 15. UPDATE: see this story.
The Washington Post has this story about the lawsuit that the Libertarian and Green Parties will be filing in a few days. Even though the case isn’t filed yet, the attorneys gave the Post a copy of the complaint, and the Post article discusses that complaint.
On September 24, the Michigan Senate Elections & Government Reform Committee took testimony on three bills that would alter the electoral college. SB 489 would give each U.S. House district its own elector. SB 197 would award electors in proportion to the popular vote within the state. SB 88 is the National Popular Vote Plan. See this story.
It has now been 41 days since the Washington State Supreme Court issued an order fining the state $100,000 per day until the state legislature funds education in a manner that is consistent with the equal protections portions of the State Constitution. The legislature has not even been called back into session to deal with the problem. See this story, which says that no progress will be made until the partisan legislative caucuses are in agreement about a solution.
Washington state has been using top-two starting in 2008. Advocates of the top-two system have disseminated op-eds in several publications, all of which praise the top-two system for creating legislatures that are able to function effectively. But these opinion pieces never mention Washington state; instead they focus solely on California, where there is no legislative gridlock anymore because Democrats control both houses of the legislature with substantial majorities and the budget can be approved by majority vote.
The Registrar of Voters of Napa County, California, believes that qualified political parties that choose to have elections for county central committees should be required to pay the administrative costs of those elections. The California Constitution says that election officials shall conduct such elections for parties that want them. See this story. It is somewhat likely that the Secretary of State will issue an opinion on this controversy, and chances are the Secretary of State will rule that parties don’t need to pay for these elections.
Parties that hold such elections are Democratic, Republican, American Independent, Green, and Peace & Freedom. The Libertarian Party does not use government-administered elections for electing party officials. When Americans Elect was on the ballot, it also did not do so.
