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.
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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.
L.A. Weekly has this very long story about California’s 33rd U.S. House District race. Although the first part of the article is about Marianne Williamson, the second half is about incumbent Congressman Henry Waxman, with quite a bit about Bill Bloomfield as well. Bloomfield ran as an independent against Waxman in 2012 and he may run again. Marianne Williamson is running as an independent. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link.
Unfortunately, the reporter who wrote the story refers to the November election as the “run-off.” This is incorrect. A “run-off” is only held if no one gets 50% in the election itself. Because no one is ever elected in California’s top-two system in the June primary, the June event is not a true election. It is only a ballot-access barrier, functioning to decide the identify of the only two people permitted to run in the election itself. The top-two law was written that way because a federal law requires all states to hold congressional elections in November, and if a run-off is desired, it must be after the November election. Georgia and Louisiana are the only states with congressional run-offs.
According to this story, a lawsuit has been filed in Texas state court to keep Supreme Court Justice Jeff Brown off the March 2014 Republican primary ballot. Candidates in Texas primaries who are running for statewide judicial posts need 700 signatures. The lawsuit was filed by Joe Pool, who is running against Brown in the Republican primary.