On February 14, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declined to put a ballot measure on the ballot that would ask voters if they wish to repeal Instant Runoff Voting. The proposal would have reverted to a two-round election, with the election itself in September, and a run-off in November if no one got at least 65% in the September election.
Joe Mathews, a California journalist, scholar and author, here advocates that Clint Eastwood be the Americans Elect nominee for President.
On February 14, the Virginia House passed HB 1151 unanimously. This is the bill that says petitions for both the primary and the general election this year, for federal office, are valid if they are based on the old U.S. House districts (the ones in force between 2001 and 2010). The bill goes into effect as soon as it is signed into law.
Assuming it also passes the Senate and is signed quickly by the Governor, the bill enables presidential petitions, and U.S. Senate petitions, and U.S. House petitions, to proceed now, without any need to wait to see what the new district boundaries will be.
Four Indiana voters have each filed separate challenges to the validity of Rick Santorum’s Indiana ballot access petition. See this Politico story, which also notes that the Chair of the Indiana Elections Commission is a supporter of Mitt Romney. The Indiana Elections Commission will decide on whether the Santorum petition is valid. County elections officials say he lacks 500 valid signatures in the 7th U.S. House district. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
On February 13, the Washington state House unanimously passed HB 1860, which preserves elections for Precinct Committee Officer (a party office, not a public office). The bill says these elections will be held at the time of the August primary, every two years.
To get around the problem that Washington state only prints one version of a primary ballot, and all voters use that ballot, the bill provides that in the section for voting for Precinct Committee Officer, the top of that part of the ballot will say, “In order to vote for Precinct Committee Officer, a partisan office, you must affirm that you are a Democrat or a Republican and may vote only for one candidate from the party you select. This preference is private and will not be matched to your name or shared.”
Also, under the name of each candidate for Precinct Committee Officer will appear, “By voting for this candidate, I affirm that I am a Democrat”, if the candidate is seeking seat on a Democratic Party committee. If the candidate is running to be a member of a Republican Party committee, under the name of that candidate will be “By voting for this candidate, I affirm that I am a Republican.” The bill says that if a voter votes for both a Republican and a Democrat, his or her vote for Precinct Committee Officer will be invalid.
The bill is peculiar because it includes the names of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The bill’s authors thereby are writing into the law their assumption that for all time into the future, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party will be ballot-qualified parties, and no other party will be. This is not realistic. The definition of a qualified party in Washington is a group that polled at least 5% for President at the last presidential election. But in 1996, the Reform Party polled over 5% for President in Washington state, and it is easy to imagine that a party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, will repeat that showing in a future election.
