California Senator Loni Hancock and Assemblymember Mike Eng have introduced bills to let counties use Instant Runoff Voting for special elections for U.S. House and state legislature. If these bills pass, they would save money for election administrators. Almost all California special elections for those offices require two rounds of voting. Although the existing law says there should be only one round when someone gets at least 50%, it is very rare for anyone in the first round of a special election to get 50%. Virtually by definition, there is no incumbent in a special election, so it is rare for anyone to get a majority in the first round.

If the U.S. House district, or the state legislative district, is in two counties, then both counties would need to agree to use Instant Runoff Voting. The bills are AB 2732 and SB 1346 They are the first bills in California to provide for Instant Runoff Voting in partisan elections. Thanks to Dave Kadlecek for the bill numbers.

Only six states still print the candidates for presidential elector on November ballots. The most populous of these six states is Arizona, which has ten electoral votes.

Arizona Senator Jack W. Harper (R-Surprise) has introduced SB 1024, which provides that the names of presidential elector candidates would no longer appear on the November ballot. Instead, the ballot would list the names of candidates for President and Vice-President. The existing law does not permit the names of vice-presidential candidates to be printed on the ballot. On February 18, the bill passed second reading in the Senate.

Removing the names of candidates for presidential elector (especially in states with a sizable number of presidential electors) creates a simpler ballot.

On February 19, the 5th circuit asked Louisiana to respond to the Libertarian Party’s latest brief, in the case filed in 2008 over whether Bob Barr should have been on the ballot for President. The party had lost the case in the 5th circuit on January 21, 2010. However, the party had asked then for a rehearing before all the full-time judges of the 5th circuit. The case is Libertarian Party v Dardenne, 09-30307.

This development is good news for the Libertarian Party’s lawsuit. It is unusual for a rehearing request to get any response at all except a denial. The January 21 decision by three judges of the 5th circuit had said the case is moot.