On April 14, the Louisiana House passed HB 292 by a vote of 72-26. It changes Congressional elections from a semi-closed primary system to a system in which parties don’t have nominees. All candidates would run on a single ballot in November. If anyone polled at least 50%, that person would be elected. Otherwise there would be a run-off in December. Louisiana used this system 1998 through 2006 for Congress. See this story.
Froma Harrop is a syndicated columnist whose work appears in 200 newspapers. Her most recent column focuses on the fact that independent candidates for Governor this year are doing very well in the polls in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.
On April 13, Florida held a special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 19th district. The results: Ted Deutch, Democrat, 62%; Ed Lynch, Republican, 36%, Jim McCormick, independent, 3%.
When this district last voted, in November 2008, the results had been: Democratic 66.2%, Republican 27.2%, independent 6.6%. The 19th district includes parts of West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
On April 13, the Maryland legislature adjourned for the year. Neither ballot access bill passed. SB 240, which provided that petition signatures are valid even if the voter didn’t sign exactly as he or she signed the voter registration form, had passed the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee on April 12. But it didn’t advance any further. SB 710, to lower the number of signatures for a new party from 10,000 to 5,000, didn’t make any headway at all.
The legislature did pass HB 496/SB 400, and on April 13, the Governor signed it into law. It says that for redistricting purposes, prisoners should be counted as residents of their homes before they were incarcerated, instead of as residents of the prison. Maryland is the first state in the nation to pass such a law. This type of law reduces the artificial advantage given to areas that have prisons, when the legislature draws U.S. House and state legislative districts.
The Center for Voting and Democracy, a nationwide group, has taken a position against California’s Proposition 14. Director Rob Richie explains the Center’s position in this Huffington Post article.
