On April 19, USA Today ran an editorial endorsing the use of Instant-Runoff Voting. It can be read here. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
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The New Hampshire Libertarian Party appears to have persuaded State Representative Bea Franceoeur to be the Libertarian Party candidate for Governor, in 2008 (New Hampshire elects a Governor every two years). She was elected in 2006 as a Republican. Thanks to Eric Dondero for this news.
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.
On April 17, the Florida Senate Ethics & Elections Committee passed SB1010, to provide a presidential primary a week after the New Hampshire primary.
The Senate Committee amended the bill so that it includes funding to eliminate electronic vote-counting machines that don’t have a paper trail. The Senate and the Governor have been fighting to eliminate machines with no paper trail, and have been concerned that the House doesn’t support that goal. Since the House is adamantly in favor of the January 29 presidential primary, the combined bill is likely to achieve both objectives (the early primary and the elimination of paperless machines).
New Hampshire’s primary is currently set for January 22, but there are some hints that New Hampshire may move it to an even earlier date. Some Florida elections officials are worried that if the Florida bill passes, and then New Hampshire makes a last-minute decision to move its date, that Florida elections procedures aren’t flexible enough to cope with the sudden last-minute date change.
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.