On April 19, election officials in San Mateo County, California, discovered 65 ballots from November 2012 that had been cast, but never counted. See this story. Thanks to AroundtheCapitol for the link.
On April 18, Alabama SB 405 passed the Senate Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics & Elections Committee by a vote of 4-2. It would provide that voter registration forms ask voters to choose a party. This would make it possible for parties to close their primaries. Alabama has always had open primaries. Thanks to Michael Drucker for this news.
The Clarion Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi, has this story about the National Popular Vote Plan movement. One of the most interesting details in this story is an account of what happened in Mississippi in 1944. According to the story, the state Democratic Party convention “secretly” chose presidential elector candidates who were not intending to vote for Franklin Roosevelt, but Senator Harry Byrd. But the “secret” got out, and the Governor called the legislature into special session, and the legislators (all of whom were Democrats) named a different slate of elector candidates for the Democratic Party only a week before the election. The ballots were re-printed to replace the first slate with the newer slate.
The New York Times has this story about Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to eliminate the Wilson-Pakula law. The article is badly titled. The name of the article is “A bid to limit each candidate to one ballot line is stirring debate.” Actually the article does not mention one person or group who is advocating eliminating fusion, although the article does quote one political science professor who hints that would be a good idea. Thanks to Richard Grayson for the link.
On April 18, the Oregon House passed HB 3077, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. The bill had passed the House Rules Committee on April 17. The vote in the House was 38-21. Democrats supported the bill 31-2. Republicans mostly opposed it, but their votes were not overwhelmingly against the bill; Republicans opposed it 19-7.
The Oregon Senate also has a bill for the National Popular Vote Plan, SB 624, but it hasn’t moved so far.
