NY Times Article on Biden Allies Trying to Keep Third Parties & Independent Candidates Off State Ballots

Posted on by October 8, 2023
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Here is a Sunday, October 8 New York Times article on Biden allies trying to keep third parties and independent candidates off states’ ballots in 2024.

Generally, the New York Times is behind a paywall, but I was able to read the entire article.

Nowhere in the article is the solution of Ranked Choice Voting or other alternative voting systems mentioned.

Richard Winger is right. Something is terribly wrong with the political culture in the United States. Minor parties exist in Canada and the United Kingdom that threaten to “take votes” from major parties, yet there are no organized efforts to boot those parties and candidates from ballots.

Pennsylvania House Rejects Bill for a March 19 Primary and Passes Another Bill for an April 2 Primary

Posted on by October 7, 2023
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On October 5, the Pennsylvania House overwhelmingly rejected SB 224, which would have moved the primary in 2024 for all office from late April to March 19. The House also passed HB 1534, which would move the 2024 primaries to the first Tuesday in April, which would be April 2. The vote on that was 102-100.

California Governor Signs Bill Letting Santa Clara County Use Ranked Choice Voting for Elections for County Office

Posted on by October 7, 2023
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On Saturday, October 7, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1227, which lets Santa Clara County, the most populous county in northern California, use ranked choice voting for elections for county offices, which are all non-partisan.

This appears to be the first time that Newsom has signed a bill that promotes ranked choice voting. In the past he has repeatedly vetoed bills letting non-charter cities use RCV. Thanks to Jim Lindsay for this news.

To Its Credit, New York Times Mentions 2016 Exit Polls Relative to Jill Stein

Posted on by October 6, 2023
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On October 6, the New York Times published an article about Cornel West’s decision to run for president as an independent instead of as a Green. Unlike almost every other major media story, the New York Times story, written by Charles Homans, stated that Jill Stein most likely did not “spoil” the election for Hillary Clinton. He wrote, “The number of votes received by the (Green) party’s nominee, Jill Stein, in three battleground states would have been enough for Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump in the election – although exit polls in one of the states, Michigan, found that only a quarter of Ms. Stein’s voters said they would have otherwise have voted for Ms. Clinton.”

Michigan in 2016 was the closest of all the states that Trump carried. Homans could have added, but he didn’t, that the same exit polls showed that 14% of the Stein voters otherwise have voted for Trump. When one does the math, one sees that Stein did not change the outcome in any state.

The article is probably behind a paywall for most BAN readers, but here is a link.