On June 23, Congressman Darryl Issa, chair of the House Oversight Committee, introduced HR 2309, the Postal Reform Act of 2011. Among many other changes, it repeals cheap postal rates for Qualified Political Committees. The existing law, 39 USC 3626, gives political parties the same inexpensive third class postal rates that are enjoyed by nonprofit organizations. Existing law, as passed by Congress in 1979, only gave these cheap rates to parties that had polled 25% of the vote for President at the last election. In 1980, a U.S. District Court in Greenberg v Bolger, 497 F Supp 756 (e.d. N.Y.) had declared that the Constitution did not permit the government to discriminate against minor parties relative to major parties, so the cheap rate was extended to all national political parties. In 1983 another U.S. District Court in Spencer v Herdesty, 571 F Supp 444 (s.d.Ohio) had granted injunctive relief to local political parties as well, and in 1985 granted declaratory relief also, 613 F Supp 990.

Because HR 2309 has been referred to Issa’s committee, it is certain that this bill will receive hearings, and will probably advance to the House floor, although it has other committee hurdles first.

The California Secretary of State has posted the official results of the July 12 special election for U.S. House, 36th district. They show: Democrat Janice Hahn 47,000; Republican Craig Huey 38,624. No other choices were allowed on the ballot, and all write-in votes were discarded, in accordance with “top-two” rules. The Secretary of State’s web page shows this election attracted a 25.00% turnout.

The only other top-two election in California so far that had a second round was the special election for Assembly, district four, earlier this year. That election’s second round had a turnout of 25.68%, according to the Secretary of State’s web page.

By contrast, the last special election second round held before top-two went into effect, the special election for State Senate district one (in January 2011) had a turnout of 25.98%. Voters in that special election were free to vote for either a Democrat, or a Republican, or a declared write-in candidate. The previous special election before that, for State Senate, district 15 race August, 2010, had a turnout of 39.43%. That race had four candidates on the ballot, a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, and an independent.

Proponents of the top-two system insisted during the Proposition 14 campaign that if top-two were implemented, turnout would increase. They paid no attention to the data from Louisiana and Washington, the other two states that have used top-two. Turnout in those two states did not increase after top-two began either. Elections with only two choices are intrinsically less interesting than elections with multiple choices.

The Peace & Freedom Party holds a meeting in Oakland, California, on July 30, which includes not only a State Central Committee meeting of the California party, but a meeting open to like-minded people from across the United States, to discuss the 2012 election. See www.noc2012.org for more detail. The meeting notice says “The National Organizing Committee is sponsoring this event with the intent to kick-start our work in forging a coalition of people wanting to build Left presidential and congressional candidacies for the upcoming election.” Thanks to Casey Peters for the link.