The Oklahoma legislature will adjourn on May 25. It appears that the only election law bill of any interest that is likely to pass this year is HB 2095, which moves the presidential primary to January 29. It passed the House on March 7 and will probably pass the Senate before adjournment. Thanks to the poster below for improving the accuracy of this item.

Bills to ease ballot access, to eliminate the straight-ticket device, and to implement the National Popular Vote Plan for presidential elections, are unlikely to pass.

On May 5, Delaware held a special election to fill the vacant seat in the House, 41st district. The results were: Gregory Hastings, Republican, 42.8%; Lynn Bullock, Democrat, 38.1%; John Atkins, write-in, 12.9%; John Burton, Independent Party, 6.2%.

The same seat in November 2006 voted this way: Republican 62.7%; Democratic 35.1%; Independent Party 2.2%.

The May 3 Scotland Parliamentary Election used a mixture of single-member constituencies and proportional representation. 129 seats were up. 73 members were elected from districts, the old-fashioned way that has always been used in the U.S. (in other words, whichever candidate gets the most votes, is elected). The other 56 seats were filled proportionately.

Voters voted for a district member. Then, in a different part of the ballot, they voted for their favorite party, for the non-district seats. The results: Labor received 37 district seats but only 9 more proportionate seats, for a total of 46. The Scottish National Party won 21 district seats but 26 more seats from the proportionate part of the ballot, for a total of 47. The Conservative Party won only 4 district seats, but 13 more proportionate seats. The Liberal Democrats won 11 district seats and 5 more proportionate seats. The Green Party won 2 seats, and one independent was elected.

Even though the Scotland Parliamentary elections had used this same system in 2003, this time there was confusion. Whereas in 2003 there had been one ballot for the district seats and one district for the at-large seats, this time there was only one ballot for both types of seats. Unfortunately, the directions said “vote twice”. The people who wrote the directions meant to explain to voters to vote both for a district seat, and an at-large seat. But some voters tried to vote for 2 candidates for a district seat, or tried to make 2 choices for the at-large seats. Approximately 100,000 ballots were spoiled.

Completely separate from the Parliamentary election, were elections for local council, held all over Great Britain except for London. In Scotland, these elections used Single Transferrable Vote, which had not been used in Scotland before. It worked well.