On January 21, the supporters of Maine’s program for public funding of campaigns submitted 85,000 signatures for their statewide initiative to expand the public funding program. See this story. Assuming the initiative gets on the ballot, it will have a vote this year, in November 2015.
The Mississippi Secretary of State’s office set up a Committee to Review the state’s election laws last year. On January 16, 2015, the committee issued this 18-page report. The committee has 50 members. On the issue of whether to provide for early voting (“no-excuse absentee voting”), the committee voted in favor 36-3, with 11 abstentions. On the issue of whether to provide for on-line voter registration, the committee favored that idea 32-6, with 12 abstentions.
On the issue of what kind of primary system the state should use, 23 voted in favor of a Louisiana-style system, and 20 voted in favor of keeping Mississippi’s open primary. Seven abstained. However, the members who voted in favor of keeping the open primary recommended consolidating the Democratic and Republican primaries into the same polling locations, to save money. Currently, Mississippi election officials must provide separate locations for the Republican primary and the Democratic primary. Mississippi has other qualified parties but they don’t actually have primaries because the state doesn’t print up primary ballots for any party unless at least two people from the same party file to run against each other, and that virtually never happens.
The Report refers to the Louisiana system as a top-two primary. The authors of the Report mention that California also has a top-two primary, but the Report on page 11 says “A top-two primary election system would appear to operate as a general election with a runoff, rather than a primary election which narrows the list of candidates of a political party for a general election.” This describes the Louisiana system. The Report mentions that the members of the Committee were visited by Louisiana election officials, who briefed them on the Louisiana system.
John Myers of KQED, the leading public broadcasting station in northern California, has this interesting analysis of the top-two system on major party nominations and processes. He expects primary turnout to continue to be quite low. He also notes the success of major party leaders in helping influence which candidates declare for office.
Bills have been introduced in each house of the Mississippi legislature to move the presidential primary (and the primary for all other office in presidential years) from the second Tuesday in March, to the first Tuesday in March. They are SB 2531 and HB 933. It is likely that when the Alabama legislature convenes, a similar bill will be introduced in that state. Both states had their presidential primaries on March 13 in 2012, but if the bills pass, they will be March 1 in 2016. For 2016, the major parties do not permit any states (except New Hampshire and South Carolina) to hold presidential primaries earlier than March 1. Thanks to Josh Putnam for the news.
Between February 12-16, a museum near Atlanta will feature an exhibit on Black presidential candidates in U.S. history, going back to 1904. See here for more information. The exhibit will be in the Sights & Sounds Black Cultural Expo Museum, in North Dekalb Mall, 2050 Lawrenceville Hwy., Decatur Ga 30033. Then, starting February 17-19, it will be at the Atlanta University Center.
