On May 12, the Vermont Senate passed HB 429 by 16-14. It bans “sore losers”. But because the Senate amended the bill, it must return to the House, so it still hasn’t passed the legislature.

The bill also requires write-in candidates to file a declaration of write-in candidacy if they want their write-ins tallied. And it makes it more difficult for a write-in candidate in a primary to be declared nominated. The write-in candidate must receive a number of write-ins in the primary that equals the number of signatures he or she would have needed to get on the primary ballot. In addition, the write-in candidate’s total in the primary must equal at least 10% of the number of votes cast for that office in that primary.

On May 18, Delaware SB 57 passed the House. It is now through the legislature. It provides that presidential electors who don’t vote for the presidential candidate of their party are to be replaced with someone else. The vote in the House was 31-8.

Currently, Maine uses ranked choice voting for federal office in both primaries and general elections. But for state office, ranked choice voting is only used for primaries, not general elections. A proposed constitutional amendment to allow ranked choice in general elections for state office has advanced. LD 1917 passed the joint Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on May 18. Thanks to Fairvote for this news.

If the bill passes the legislature, then the voters would vote on it. The reason Maine has a different policy for state office than for federal office is that several years ago, the State Supreme Court ruled that using ranked choice voting for state office in general elections violates the State Constitution. So the proposal would amend the State Constitution.