On February 15, the Hawaii House Judiciary Committee passed HB 638, unanimously. It would provide that Hawaii use Instant Runoff Voting in special elections. Currently, Hawaii holds special elections without any procedure for parties to nominate candidates. Candidates merely qualify. This led to a 2010 special election for U.S. House in which two prominent Democrats split the normal Democratic vote, so that a Republican was elected with less than 40% of the total vote cast.
In the last session of the California legislature, a bill was introduced to force petition circulators to wear badges, saying where they are registered to vote. That bill did not pass. Now Assemblymember Ben Hueso (D-Chula Vista) has introduced AB 651. It requires circulators to wear badges in at least 30-point type identifying who hired the circulator to collect signatures, if the circulator is indeed being paid. The bill only applies to initiative, referendum, and recall petitions, but not to petitions to place a candidate or a party on the ballot.
On February 16, the Idaho legislature passed HB 60, which moves the presidential primary (as well as the primary for other office) from the fourth week in May, to the third week in May. The bill has no effect on the existing August petition deadline for new parties, or the existing August petition deadline for independent presidential candidates. However, the effect of the bill will be to make the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline one week earlier than it had been. Thanks to Josh Putnam’s Frontloading HQ for this news.
On February 16, an Oklahoma State Supreme Court referee heard oral arguments in Duffe v State Question 748, case no. 109127. This lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of a new Oklahoma law that the voters passed last year. It sets up a Redistricting Commission, which draws the legislative district boundaries if the legislature fails to act. It says that all the members must be Democrats or Republicans. The law specifies those two parties by name. See this article. The plaintiff, Clark Duffe, is actually a Libertarian, and was an independent candidate for Congress last year because the Libertarian Party wasn’t on the ballot.
On February 16, the British Parliament approved the bill to provide for a national vote on May 5, on whether to use Instant Runoff Voting in House of Commons elections. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news. There had been some suspense, because the House of Lords had been threatening to delay the authorization.
