The California legislature, having passed a budget, has gone on a three-week recess. When legislators return on August 17, they will face many election law bills:

1. Three bills on the indirect initiative, SCA 16, ACA 13, and SCA 10. All three have passed policy committees in one house and are in one or the other of the Appropriations Committees.
2. AB 1396, a bill to deregulate the internal organization of the Democratic Party, is three-fourths of the way through the legislature but is still awaiting party-desired amendments.
3. AB 1121, which has passed the Assembly and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would let 10 non-charter cities or counties use Instant Runoff voting for their own elections.
4. AB 308, which has passed the Assembly and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would let foreign absentee voters use a type of Instant Runoff Voting in elections in which there is a possibility of a run-off if no one gets 50% in the first round.
5. SB 34, which is ready to receive a vote on the Assembly floor, would outlaw paying initiative circulators on a per-signature basis.
6. AB 909, which has passed the Assembly and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would provide that independent voters must be told at the primary polling place that they may choose a Democratic, Republican or American Independent primary ballot.
7. AB 6, which has passed the Assembly and and all Senate Committees, would require anyone who pays initiative circulators to register with the Secretary of State.

For some time, the British Conservative Party has been experimenting with choosing its candidates for the House of Commons by open meeting, at which any British voter (who lives in that district) may attend and vote. Now the Conservative Party is starting to send ballots to all the voters of a particular constituency in the postal mail, to choose its nominees. See this BBC story.

The next House of Commons election has not yet been called, but parties in Britain traditionally choose their nominees early, because no one ever knows when the next election will be called.

The Federal Election Commission still hasn’t published “Federal Elections 2008”, the book of election returns, for President and Congress, from last year’s election. The 2004 edition had been published in May 2005. The 2006 edition had been published in June 2007.

Also, the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives still hasn’t published “Statistics of the Presidential & Congressional Election of November 4, 2008”. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this.