The Seattle Times of October 18, 2009 has this editorial, urging Pierce County voters to keep Ranked-Choice Voting. Pierce County, dominated by the city of Tacoma, has a ballot question on the November 3, 2009 ballot, asking voters if they wish to eliminate Ranked-Choice Voting for county offices.
The Whig Party announced on October 19 that it will have at least three candidates on the Florida ballot for U.S. House in 2010. They will be Paul McKain, who is running in the 2nd district and had already announced; John Annarumma in the 3rd district, and Clayton Schock in the 20th district.
Florida abolished mandatory petitions for minor party and independent candidates for partisan office in 1999 (except that independent presidential candidates still need approximately 100,000 signatures). Yet despite the fact that any political party, no matter how small, can now place candidates on the Florida ballot with no petition, there have been virtually no minor party candidates for U.S. House in Florida in the last ten years. No minor party has yet had as many as three candidates for U.S. House in any election year. The Libertarians had two in 2004, and the Reform Party had two in 2000. The Green Party has not had any in the last ten years. The most the Constitution Party ever had in any one year was one (one in 2002 and one in 2004). The Socialist Workers Party has not had any.
The reason for the paucity of candidates for U.S. House is that the filing fee is more than $8,500. There is a petition in lieu of filing fee, which requires approximately 4,500 signatures of voters in the district.
Louisiana elects all its state legislators in the odd year just before presidential election years. All state legislators in both houses get four-year terms. The last election for Louisiana legislature was in 2007.
Louisiana has used “top-two” in all state elections starting in 1975. In the 2007 election, out of all 144 legislative races, only two incumbents were defeated for re-election in either round of voting. They were Rick Farrar, a Democrat in the 27th House district, and Carla Dartez, a Democrat in the 51st district. Both were defeated by a Republican.
Louisiana elects all its state legislators in the odd year just before presidential election years. All state legislators in both houses get four-year terms. The last election for Louisiana legislature was in 2007.
Louisiana has used “top-two” in all state elections starting in 1975. In the 2007 election, out of all 144 legislative races, only two incumbents were defeated for re-election in either round of voting. They were Rick Farrar, a Democrat in the 27th House district, and Carla Dartez, a Democrat in the 51st district. Both were defeated by a Republican.
A post at this site on October 17 mentioned the U.S. House elections held in Louisiana while that state used “top-two”. This is a supplementary post concerning U.S. Senate elections in Louisiana. That state held ten U.S. Senate elections during the years when Louisiana used “top-two”, and in none of them was any incumbent U.S. Senator ever defeated, in either the first or second rounds.
