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.

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.

On January 22, a subcommittee of the Virginia House Privileges & Elections Committee heard testimony on HB 1463, which changes the definition of “Political party” from a group that at least 10% for a statewide race at either of the last two elections, to one that got at least 4%. Four witnesses testified, all in favor of the bill. However, the subcommittee then voted to postpone the bill indefinitely, which is a way of killing the bill without any actually voting “no.” Thanks to Bill Redpath for this news.