On July 6, the California Senate Elections Committee passed AB 1227. It lets Santa Clara County use ranked choice voting for elections for its own officers. Santa Clara County is the most populous county in northern California.
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On July 10, the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed AB 292. This is the bill that makes it easier for independent voters to obtain a presidential primary ballot, for any party that allows independents to vote in its presidential primary. Now it only has a vote in the Senate before it reaches the Governor. Traditionally, starting in 2004, independents have been allowed to vote in the Democratic presidential primary. But the Republican Party has only let independents vote in its 2004 presidential primary, but not any presidential primary since then.
The bill lets an independent voter phone, text, or e-mail the county elections office, letting the elections office know that the voter wants a particular party’s presidential primary ballot.
This story is about an Elections bill that was passed on Thursday, July 13 by the US House Committee on House Administration on an 8-4 vote.
While ostensibly about “election integrity,” the bill bars the District of Columbia from using Ranked Choice Voting (continuing some Republicans’ attack on RCV), bars non-citizens from voting in DC elections, and mandates a “30% reduction in federal payments to any state or local jurisdictions that permit voting by noncitizens.”
The bill has 100 Republican and zero Democratic cosponsors, meaning that it is extremely unlikely this bill will become law in this Congress.
This story states that only 10% of Americans think democracy in the United States is working “very or extremely well.” This is further evidence that the American public is open to electoral reform.
On a personal note, I marched in a parade with other FairVote Illinois volunteers on Saturday, July 1 in Palatine, Illinois, and was somewhat surprised at the extent of the positive reception for Ranked Choice Voting along the parade route.
On July 13, Texas businessman Mark Cuban said he would not seek to be the presidential nominee of No Labels. However, he says he supports No Labels. See this story. He also mentions that he supports the Center for Competitive Democracy, which is a group working to improve the nation’s ballot access laws. The Center for Competitive Democracy was founded by Oliver Hall, an attorney in Washington,, D.C., who has done many ballot access lawsuits and who is currently representing the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, or other minor parties in court in Indiana, New york, North Carolina, and Texas.