Seth Masket, a political scientist who specializes partly in political parties and partisanship, has published this essay which outlines the institutional weaknesses of state legislatures in many states, but which then suggests that these deficiencies can partly be overcome by political parties. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On February 3, the Kansas House Elections Committee passed HB 2108. This is the bill to reinstate the straight-ticket device. Kansas repealed it in 1923. See this editorial from the Kansas City Star, criticizing the bill.
On February 4, at the beginning of the Oklahoma House Elections & Ethics Committee hearing, the chair of the committee announced that Speaker Jeffrey Hickman is unable to appear at the hearing today, so Hickman’s ballot access bill, HB 2181, won’t be brought up in committee today. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
This article about spending in California’s 2014 statewide elections has lots of interesting information, but one especially interesting point is that John Chiang, a Democrat, spent only $24,293 on his election campaign. In November he won with 58.8% of the vote.
Bills have been introduced in both Massachusetts and Vermont to provide that overseas absentee presidential primary ballots should allow a limited form of ranked-choice voting. Both states in 2016 will have March 1 presidential primaries, and in both states, the ballot will just be for president, not other office. The bills would provide that overseas absentee voters can rank their choice. In case the voter ranks a candidate #1, but that candidate withdraws from the race for the nomination by March 1, then that voter’s number two choice will be counted instead of the number one choice. The bills are HB 115 in Vermont, and HD 2394 in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts bill so far is just a draft. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
