Daily Kos has this interesting and fair article about California’s election system. Equally interesting are the comments.
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Sometimes supporters of top-two open primary systems say that their system eliminates “spoiling”, i.e., the so-called tendency of minor party candidates in a race to alter the identity of the winner. But, that argument is faulty. This is clearly illustrated in the First Assembly District results in California’s June 5 primary.
Two Republicans ran: Brian Dahle received 31,687 votes, and Rick Bosetti received 25,820 votes. They will be the only candidates in November. They are both firm opponents of any tax increases. In addition, one Democrat, Robert Meacher, ran. He received 24,081 votes, not enough to qualify for the November ballot. Also, Green Party member David Edwards ran, and received 5,225 votes; and Libertarian Charley Hooper ran and received 4,839 votes. Here is a newspaper story, in which the Democrat, Robert Meacher, says that if the two minor party candidates had not been in the race, he would have received enough votes to qualify for the November ballot. See the fifth paragraph in the story. Meacher is probably correct.
Assembly District One consists of the northeast corner of California. If California still used a normal system in which party members nominate candidates for the November election, voters in this district in November would be able to vote for any one of four parties, for Assembly. But, in reality, voters will be restricted to choosing between two Republicans, both of whom are very similar on the issues.
If top-two supporters are sincere that they wish to eliminate “spoiling”, it would be more rational for them to support Instant Runoff Voting or Approval Voting.
The Michigan Libertarian Party has issued this press release, condemning Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, a Republican, for her decision that she will not allow the Libertarian Party (which is ballot-qualified) to list its presidential nominee on the 2012 ballot. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Virginia law allows all parties to decide whether to nominate by convention or primary. Virginia elects its governors in the odd years following presidential election years. The party will decide on June 16 whether to use a convention or a primary for its statewide nominees in 2013. The forces arguing in favor of a convention argue that, if the party chooses a convention, that would save the taxpayers $3,000,000. The pro-primary forces argues that conventions disenfranchise voters who are overseas, and also that if the party holds a convention, that would deplete the party’s bank account. See this story.
On June 8, two Florida voters and a voting rights group filed a lawsuit to stop a new attempt by the Florida Secretary of State to purge the voting rolls of certain voters. The case is Mi Familia Vota Education Fund v Detzner, middle district, 8:12-cv-1294. Here is the 16-page complaint.
The recent Florida Secretary of State’s directive requires county elections officials to compare the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles records with voter registration records. The purge is an attempt to identify registered voters who are not U.S. citizens.
The lawsuit says the problem with this is that some individuals who were not U.S. citizens when they first obtained a drivers license have since become U.S. citizens. But when such an individual becomes a citizen, there is no procedure by which the drivers license record is changed. One of the plaintiffs, Murat Limage, received his first Florida drivers license in 1999, when he was not yet a citizen. He became a citizen on October 19, 2010, and registered to vote for the first time on November 1, 2010. But he received a notice saying he “may not” be a citizen, and saying unless he proved that he is a citizen within 30 days, his name would be dropped from the rolls. He then presented his U.S. passport to the county elections office, where he was told that he need not take any further action, but that he would not be given anything writing establishing that he is properly registered. Without such a writing, he is afraid that when he attempts to vote, the record will still show that he is not a U.S. citizen.
The basis for the lawsuit is that the new Florida program was not pre-cleared by the Voting Rights Section. The lawsuit asks that a 3-judge court be convened. In the meantime, some county officials have said they will not comply with the Secretary of State’s directive. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.