Wisconsin repealed the straight-ticket device in 2011. This Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story says that the change in the 2012 election was helpful to incumbent Republican legislators. Thanks to Rick Kissell for the link.
Reply
On April 9, a member of the Illinois Libertarian Party, Chris Jenner, was elected to the McHenry County College Board of Trustees. The district includes not only McHenry County, but parts of Boone, Kane, and Lake Counties. Voters elected candidates to three at-large posts. Twelve candidates ran, and Jenner placed second. See this post about Jenner at the Libertarian Party’s web page. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this news.
On April 11, the 9th circuit refused to rehear Libertarian Party of Los Angeles County v Bowen, 11-55316. This is the case over California’s law that won’t let petitioners circulate a candidate petition if the circulator doesn’t live in the candidate’s district. The original Ninth Circuit opinion, issued on March 6, said that the plaintiffs do have standing. The state then asked for a rehearing en banc, arguing strenuously that the plaintiffs do not have standing. But not a single judge of the Ninth Circuit voted to rehear the case. Here is the order.
Now the case will go back to U.S. District Court. The U.S. District Court had ruled that the plaintiffs don’t have standing. There is also a bill pending in the legislature to repeal all residency requirements for petitioners, and if that bill is signed into law, the case will be moot.
In the 2012 election, among the states that voted for Mitt Romney, only West Virginia and Kentucky have Democratic majorities in either house of the state legislature. Democrats still have a majority in both houses of the West Virginia legislature, and the Kentucky House. Otherwise, all states that voted Republican for president also elected Republican legislative majorities in both houses, if they had legislative elections up in 2012.
For more details, see this link to The Thicket, on-line journal of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Montana House Administration Committee will hold a hearing on SB 408 on April 15. This is the bill to ask the voters in 2014 if they wish to put a top-two primary system into place. The same committee resoundingly defeated another top-two bill earlier this year.