Matt Munson has this article about the two California bills that would increase the number of one-candidate elections for Congress and state office, SB 712 and AB 141. The article appears in The Orange Juice Blog, a well-read politics blog in Orange County, California’s second most populous county.
The Montana Senate State Administration Committee will hear HB 120 on Monday, March 18. It eases the petition deadline for non-presidential independents from March to May, and also permits independent presidential and vice-presidential candidates to get on the November ballot even if they had had some involvement with a political party during the preceding year.
The California Senate Elections Committee will hear SB 213 on Tuesday, March 19. It repeals all California residency requirements for petitioners.
The California Independent Voter Network has kindly carried my article that advocates that California’s Proposition 14 (top-two open primary) system be converted into a blanket primary. Here is the link.
California State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) has introduced SB 712. Like AB 141, it would provide that write-in candidates in June primaries, for Congress or partisan state office, could not appear on the November ballot, even if they placed second in the primary, unless they get a substantial number of write-in votes.
In 2012, there were eight offices for which only one person filed to appear on the primary ballot. In six of them, however, a write-in candidate filed and naturally the write-in candidate (or one of them) then appeared on the November ballot. If this bill had been in effect at the time, none of the primary write-in candidates would have appeared on the November ballot. Instead of two races with only one candidate on the November ballot, California would have had eight such races. It is an insult to a voter to print a ballot with only one candidate on the ballot, and no write-in space, because there is no action for the voter to take that has any effect on the results.
UPDATE: Senator Lara has also introduced a proposed state constitutional amendment, SCA 12. SCA 12 would amend the top-two law to say that only one candidate would appear on the ballot if the candidate who came in second in the primary is a write-in candidate who received fewer than approximately 4,000 votes for US House, and approximately 100,000 votes for statewide office. Even if the legislature passes SCA 12, it would not take effect unless the voters vote for it. It is hard to imagine that the voters of California would vote for a measure to increase the number of one-candidate elections. FURTHER UPDATE: Assemblymember Jeff Gorell has also introduced a proposed state constitutional amendment, ACA 9, which is identical to SCA 12. The Legislative Counsel’s office told Assemblymember Gorell and Senator Lara that their bills would violate the California Constitution, so they will attempt to amend the California Constitution.
Six North Dakota legislators have introduced HCR3011, which would make it illegal for initiative circulators to be paid. HCR 3011 also imposes a severe county distribution requirement on statewide initiatives, requiring a substantial number of signatures from each of 27 counties in the state. Here is the text of the bill.
Both aspects of the bill are unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that make it illegal to pay circulators in 1988, in Meyer v Grant. And the U.S. Supreme Court struck down county distribution requirements for statewide petitions in 1969, in Moore v Ogilvie.
The bill also increases the number of signatures for statewide initiatives that change a statute, from 2% of the population of the state, to 3%. The six sponsors are: Representatives Al Carlson (R-Fargo), Jeff Delzer (R-Underwood), Bill Devlin (R-Finley), Dave Monson (R-Osnabrock), and Senators Tony Grindberg (R-Fargo) and David Hogue (R-Minot). Fortunately, if this bill passes, it cannot take effect unless the voters approve it.
This is the second attempt to injure initiatives. As reported earlier, the North Dakota Senate has already passed SB 2183, to require initiative circulators to have lived in North Dakota for two years. Thanks to Paul Jacob for this news.
