At the November 8, 2022 election, six nominee-members of the Vermont Progressive Party were elected to the legislature. They are Tanya Vyhovsky to the State Senate; and these elected to the State House: Brian Cina, Troy Headrick, Kate Logan, Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, and Taylor Small.
In 2020, the party had elected nine state legislators, two to the State Senate, and seven to the State House.
On November 23, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously refused to stop early voting on Saturday, November 26, for the run-off U.S. Senate election. The lower state courts had also interpreted the law to allow early voting on that day. Georgia Republican Party v Democratic Party of Georgia, S23M0376. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.
State law doesn’t allow early voting on Saturdays after holidays, but the courts interpreted that law to apply only to regular elections, not runoff elections.
Oklahoma State Senator Warren Hamilton (R-McCurtain) introduced SJR30 this year, but it didn’t pass. It would have changed the state Constitution to provide that initiatives can’t pass unless they receive a majority in at least two-thirds of the counties. It said that if it got a majority of the statewide vote but did not pass in at least two-thirds of the counties, it would only go into effect in the counties in which it had passed.
Senator Hamilton says in a November 4 press release that he will try again this in 2023. Thanks to Fairvote for this news.
The U.S. Elections Project has released its best estimate for voter turnout in each state, for the November 2022 election. See it here.
The five lowest states were Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Indiana. All are open primary states, except that West Virginia has a semi-closed primary.
Earlier this month, independent candidate Ammon Bundy polled 17.2% of the vote for Governor of Idaho. This is the strongest showing for someone running outside the major parties for Governor of Idaho since 1926, when the Progressive Party nominee, W. Scott Hall, polled 28.4% and placed second.
See this Mother Jones story about Bundy. He polled over 30% of the vote in four counties: Owyhee (30.86%), Oneida (30.59%), Boundary (30.58%), and Gem (30.27%).
The second-strongest independent gubernatorial candidate in 2022 was Betsy Johnson, for Governor of Oregon. She polled 8.6%.
