On February 24 the Virginia House Appropriations Committee killed SB 742. That bill would have provided for general election runoffs, for statewide office other than President, when no one got as much as 50% in November. The committee didn’t vote it down; it merely failed to act on the bill by the deadline. It had passed the Senate on February 9.
On March 3, the Oklahoma Senate passed SB 233. It moves the presidential primary from the first Tuesday in March to the fourth Tuesday in March. Oklahoma’s presidential primary is separate from its primary for other office, and this change has no impact on petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties or independent candidates.
Oklahoma has never held a presidential primary for any party other than the Democratic or Republican Parties. If this bill is signed into law, and if a newly-qualifying party is able to get on the ballot in 2016, if that group’s petition is submitted early enough, it would qualify for its own presidential primary.
Many states will be holding presidential primaries on March 1 in 2016. Oklahoma legislators believe that if the Oklahoma presidential primary is on that same day, chances are Oklahoma won’t get much attention. But the Oklahoma primary will get attention if it is the only state, or perhaps one of only two or three states, holding a March 29 primary. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for news about the bill.
New York is holding a special election on May 5 to fill the vacancy in the Assembly, 43rd district. In New York special elections, there are no primaries, and party committees choose nominees. On March 1, the Democratic Kings County Committee members who live in the 43rd district nominated Guillermo Philpotts. However, he failed to submit his Certificate of Nomination by the March 2 deadline.
As a result, it is likely that this overwhelmingly Democratic district will have nominees from these parties on the ballot: Republican, Conservative, Working Families, Independence, Green, and a single independent candidate. The candidate of the Independence Party will be Shirley Patterson, who is a Democrat and who had sought the Democratic nomination. The candidate of the Working Families and Green Parties will be Diane Richardson, another Democrat who had tried and failed to get the Democratic nomination. These two are considered the front-runners.
Also running is Menachem Raitport, who has the nomination of the Republican and Conservative Parties, and independent candidate Geoffrey Davis, whose ballot label is “Love Yourself.” The deadline for independent petitions is March 4, so conceivably there could be other independent candidates.
Here is the New York State Board of Elections web page, showing deadlines for this special election. The 43rd district is centered on Crown Heights. In November 2014, the vote for Assembly in this district was: Democratic 13,631; Working Families 1,539; Conservative 654. No Republican ran in 2014. Here is a newspaper story about the race.
Ed Miliband, who will become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom if the Labour Party wins the May 2015 election, says he has no interest in changing the voting system to ranked choice voting or proportional representation. See this story.
On Febraury 17, the Indiana House passed HB 1008. Among other things, it repeals the straight-ticket device. The vote was 59-35. All Democrats who voted, voted “No.” In addition, 8 Republicans voted “No”, but the bill still passed because Republicans have such a numerical advantage in the chamber.
The eight Republicans who voted “no” are: Randall Frye, Richard Hamm, Daniel Leonard, Jim Lucas, Peggy Mayfield, Jud McMillin, Rhonda Rhoads, and Thomas Saunders.
