The Washington Secretary of State’s web page has this useful section, with links to all briefs and other substantive documents filed in Washington State Republican Party v Washington State. This is the pending case over the constitutionality of the top-two open primary system used in that state since 2008.
On March 3, the Alabama House Constitution and Elections Committee will hold a hearing on HB 515. The bill would provide that presidential electors should be elected in proportion to their share of the popular vote within Alabama. Alabama has 8 electoral votes. Under the bill, if a presidential candidate polled roughly 38% of the vote, three electors pledged to him or her would be elected.
The bill is sponsored by Representative Demetrius Newton (D-Birmingham). A similar bill was introduced in previous sessions of the legislature, but did not pass. Thanks to Bob Friedman for this news.
On March 2, the voters of Burlington voted to repeal Instant Runoff Voting. The vote was 3,972 to repeal, and 3,669 to keep it. See this story.
The Burbank Leader of February 2 has this story about the bills recently introduced in California to use Instant Runoff Voting in special congressional and legislative elections.
Texas held its 2010 primary on March 2. Turnout appears to be 800,000 voters in the Democratic primary, and 1,500,000 in the Republican primary, or a total of approximately 2,300,000. However, Texas has 13,023,358 registered voters.
Voters who voted in the primary cannot sign petitions for minor parties or independent candidates, which begin to circulate on March 3. Only about one-sixth of the voters voted in the primary, so petitioners will be able to collect from the other five-sixths of the voters. There will be run-off primaries in April, but they are unlikely to attract many voters. The Green and Constitution Parties will be actively trying to obtain the needed 43,991 valid signatures.
Ron Paul had three Republican opponents in his primary, but he still won over 80% of the Republican primary vote in his district.
