Bills are pending in the Iowa legislature to create Public Funding for state office. The bills are HF 805 and SF 553. SF 553 passed the Senate State Government Committee on March 15, and is now pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The bills appear not to discriminate against independent candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties. Strangely, however, the bills seem to discriminate against the nominees of small qualified parties. Iowa defines “political party” to be a group that polled 2% for the vote at the top of the ticket in the last election (president and governor). There are no qualified parties in Iowa except for the Democratic and Republican Parties.

The bill defines “Independent Candidate” to be a true independent, or the nominee of an unqualified party. Section 7 of the bill says independent candidates need the same number of $5 contributions that Democrats and Republicans do. Section 19 says independents get 25% of the amount that Democrats and Republicans do in the primary season (which is reasonable, since independents don’t have to worry about a primary), and that they get the same amount that major party candidates do in the general election.

Yet, candidates of qualified parties don’t appear to get any public funding if their party polled less than 20% of the vote in the recent primary, or in the last general election. If anyone has a better understanding of this aspect of the bill, please comment.

When the voters of Ontario Province go to the polls on October 10 to elect a new provincial government, they will also be voting on whether to use Mixed Member Proportional Representation. This will be the first time Ontario voters have had a referendum since 1921. The measure needs a 60% “yes” vote to pass. Similar referenda on proportional representation achieved majority support recently in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island, but those referenda didn’t meet the 60% threshold.

On April 17, the California Assembly Elections Committee passed AB 1662, AB 1294, and AB 583. AB 1662 authorizes use of Instant-Runoff Voting for overseas voters (military and civilian), in any election for which a run-off is potentially required (such as many non-partisan elections, and also special congressional and legislative elections). AB 1294 lets any city or county use IRV or Choice Voting, for its own elections (currently, only charter cities and charter counties may use IRV).

AB 583 provides for public funding for candidates for state office. Independent candidates would need to raise twice as many qualifying $5 contributions, in order to receive public funding, compared to Democrats and Republicans. A witness pointed out that only eight independent candidates have appeared on the California ballot for regularly-scheduled state office in the last 27 years, and that in four of these instances, the independent candidate was elected. In another two instances, the independent placed 2nd but ahead of one of the major party nominees. However, this testimony seemed to make no difference; the bill passed without any amendment to ease the discrimination.