On January 15, St. Pete Polls published these results for the upcoming Florida special U.S. House election: Republican David Jolly 46.9%; Democrat Alex Sink 42.8%; Libertarian Lucas Overby 4.4%; undecided 5.9%. The election, for the 13th district centered on St. Petersburg, is March 11. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
Roll Call reports that a bill to alter the federal Voting Rights Act is likely to be introduced on January 16 in both Houses of Congress. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. At least in the House, the bill will have sponsors from both major parties. UPDATE: this Nation story explains what will be in the bills. Here is the text of the 27-page bill.
The Washington Post has this editorial, suggesting that the District of Columbia should use Instant Runoff Voting in partisan primaries. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Oklahoma Senator Larry Boggs (R-Wilburton) and Representative Jeannie McDaniel (D-Tulsa) have introduced SB 1578 and HB 2551. These identical bills provide that when only one party has any candidates for a particular office, and there are no independent candidates, then every registered voter can vote in the dominant party’s primary for those offices.
If this bill passed, many state legislative races would be altered. In 2012, there were 57 races in which only one party, and no independent, ran anyone. The state had 125 legislative seats up in 2012. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
The New Hampshire House Election Law Committee will hear testimony on two bills to ease the definition of “political party”, on January 21, Tuesday. Current law defines “party” as a group that got 4% for U.S. Senator or Governor at the last election. HB 1497 lowers that to 1%, and HB 1322 lowers it to 3%.
The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%. New Hampshire is one of only three states that has not had any ballot-qualified parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, at any time since November 1996. The other two such states are New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In Virginia, there has been no ballot-qualified party other than the two major parties since November 1997, when the Reform Party went off the ballot. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the news about the hearing.
If you live in a state with ballot access problems, consider asking a state legislator to introduce a bill to ease the problem. States with very bad ballot access laws, in which there is no bill pending to improve them, include Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington.
