On February 10, the Maine House passed LD 1666 by 71-52. It expands ranked choice voting so as to include state offices in the general election. Currently Maine uses RCV for state office in primaries but not in general elections. Also currently it uses RCV for federal office in both the primary and general elections.
The House also asked the State Supreme Court to rule on whether LD 1666 would be constitutional.
On February 5, New Jersey held primaries in connection with the special election for U.S. House, Eleventh District. Analilia Mejia won the Democratic primary. She is a former Director of the Working Families Party of New Jersey.
Eleven candidates ran in the Democratic primary. Mejia herself said that she could not have won if the old New Jersey primary ballot format had not been overturned in federal court in 2024, in a lawsuit brought by Andy Kim, who won his primary for U.S. Senate after the ballot format was changed. These elections show the importance of a ballot format that treats all candidates equally. The old format gave candidates endorsed by the party organization a prominent spot on primary ballots, and put other candidates in far corners of the ballot.
On February 9, the Colorado Libertarian Party repealed a 2024 policy that said Libertarians would not nominate candidates to run against Republicans who had signed a liberty pledge. See this story.
West Virginia Delegate Michael Hite (R-Berkeley) has introduced HB 4751. It would move the presidential primary from May to the third Tuesday in February. The primary for non-presidential office would continue to be in May. The bill has seven co-sponsors.
On February 9, the Virginia Senate passed SB 322, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. The vote was party-line, with all Democrats voting for it and all Republicans voting against it. The Democratic magin in the House is far bigger, so the bill is likely to pass. If it does, it will have passed in states with 222 electoral votes. It needs 270 before it can go into effect.
