Supporters of the National Popular Vote Plan for presidential elections are airing a television ad in Kentucky, attacking U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell for his opposition to the National Popular Vote Plan idea. The ad is titled, “Winners Should Win” and makes reference to the recent victory of the Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA basketball competition. The ad explains that under the existing system, presidential candidates can be sworn into office even though they received fewer popular votes than other presidential candidates.

The ad is sponsored by a 501(c)(4) organization called “Support Popular Vote”, which is backed by Tom Golisano. Senator McConnell has been a leading foe of the National Popular Vote Plan idea.

Watch the ad here:

Arcadia, California, holds an all-mail ballot for city office this month. The ballots are printed in several languages. The ballot is supposed to tell voters to vote for up to two candidates for city council. But the Mandarin directions on the ballot, intended to help voters who read Mandarin easier than English, says to vote for up to three candidates. The city will send a postcard to all voters, warning them of the error. See this story. Thanks to ElectionUpdates for the link.

On April 3, the Georgia legislature passed SB 92, which contains all the recommendations of the Georgia Secretary of State for election law improvement except for the suggested reduction in the number of signtures for independent and minor party candidates. As reported earlier, the legislature removed the ballot access improvements after the chair of the House Rules Committee said advocates for greater ballot access improvement had been rude to him, so he was removing those parts.

However, the bill as passed has two minor features that could result in more fairness. One provision says that when a candidate pays the filing fee after receiving misinformation from an election official, and he or she is kept off the ballot because of the misinformation, the fee can be refunded. The other provision permits candidates nominated by convention to file earlier in the year if they wish to. Minor parties that polled less than 20% of the vote in the last election, but more than 1% (of the number of registered voters) are permitted to nominate by convention, without the need for a petition, but only for statewide office. This is why Libertarians are always on the Georgia ballot for statewide office. The old law did not permit these convention nominations to be filed until the summer, but now they can be filed earlier if the minor party wishes to file earlier. Thanks to David Shock for this news.