The Billings Gazette has this op-ed opposing SB 566, which would use a top-two system for just one office in 2024, U.S. Senate. The op-ed is also signed by Sid Daoud, the chair of the Montana Libertarian Party, and Gary Buchanan, the only independent candidate who was on the ballot for any congressional race in Montana in 2022.
On April 6, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, vetoed HB 1273. This is the bill that bans charter cities and town from using Approval Voting and also Ranked Choice Voting for elections for their own officers. Fargo, the largest city in the state, uses Approval Voting. No place currently uses Ranked Choice Voting.
On Friday, April 7, the House will consider whether to override the veto. See this story. Thanks to Daniel Ong for the link.
On March 30, the Idaho House killed SJR 101a. It would have made it more difficult to qualify a statewide initiative, by requiring the petition to contain the signatures of 6% of the voters in every legislative district. It had passed the Senate.
In the House, the vote was 39-31. Even though it got more “yes” votes than “no” votes, it lost because it required two-thirds of the legislators to vote in its favor.
On April 5, the Hawaii House Finance Committee passed SB 1005 unanimously. It sets up a presidential primary. The bill has already passed the State Senate. Hawaii is one of the few states that has never before had a government-administered presidential primary.
On March 21, the California State Appeals Court, 4th district, division one, issued an opinion in Boydston v Padilla, D080921. It is 24 pages long and can be seen here. It says that independent voters have no constitutional right to vote in partisan presidential primaries. Some California parties do permit independent voters to vote in their presidential primaries, but others do not. Each party decides for itself before a presidential primary is held. The plaintiffs argued that independent voters must be permitted to vote in any party’s primary, regardless of that party’s wishes.
Generally the California Democratic Party permits independent voters to vote in its presidential primary, whereas the California Republican Party does not, although it did permit them to do so in 2004.
