On March 7, the voters of Burlington, Vermont approved a ballot measure expanding use of ranked choice voting. The city already used ranked choice voting for city council elections, but now it will be used for Mayor and School Commission. Burlington has partisan city elections. Thanks to Steve Chessin for this news.
On March 7, the voters of Redondo Beach, California, voted to use ranked choice voting for elections for city office. Redondo Beach is a charter city. California law does not allow cities to make this decision, unless they are charter cities. Most California cities are not charter cities.
The city council had put the measure on the ballot. Redondo Beach is the first city in Los Angeles County to use ranked choice voting. The measure passed with 75% support. Redondo Beach has a population of 70,000.
On March 7, the Hawaii Senate passed SB 1005, to set up Hawaii’s first government-administered presidential primary. The bill applies to all qualified parties. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news. Now the bill goes to the House.
New Hampshire HB 363 has a work session in committee set for March 7, at 3 p.m. This is the bill that relaxes the declaration of candidacy deadline from June to July, for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The New Hampshire declaration of candidacy deadline even applies to independent presidential candidates, so moving the deadline would allow greater flexibility for potential independent presidential candidates.
When a New Hampshire legislative committee sets a work session, that is a sign that the bill is being taken seriously.
On March 7, Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) introduced SB 1660. It changes the definition of a qualified party from one that got 2% for any statewide race at either of the last five elections, to one that got 10% in any of the last five election. If enacteds, it would remove the Libertarian and Green Parties from the ballot. Senator Hughes is chair of the State Affairs Committee, which will hear the bill. Thanks to Linda Curtis for this news.
The only states with a 10% vote test are Virginia and New Jersey. Alabama has a 20% vote test, but all other vote tests are 5% or below. The median vote test is 2%.
UPDATE: the Republican Party of Texas did not poll as much as 10% for any statewide office in 1912, 1914, 1934, 1938, and 1942.
If enacted, the bill would take effect on September 1, 2023. States in the past that made the definition of a party more difficult have always been careful to provide that the change doesn’t take effect until after the next election, but the Texas bill would remove parties without giving them a chance to meet the new requirement. Examples of the better approach are Indiana in 1980, Kansas in 1984, New Hampshire in 1996, North Carolina in 1948, and New York in both 1935 and 2020.
In 1982, when the Alabama legislature changed the definition of a qualified party from any organized group, to a group that had polled 20%, the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department told Alabama that the new definition could not take effect until after the 1982 election.
