A March hearing has been set in the Maryland House of Delegates for a bill that requires special elections if a state lawmaker is appointed to their seat in the first half of their term.
election reform
Indiana lawmakers will consider a bill filed in the state's House of Representatives that seeks to the close the state's primary elections and condition full voting rights on joining one of two major political parties.Â
Nonpartisan election reformers have chosen not to hang their head in defeat after a few statewide losses in 2024. Instead, their mood was surprisingly optimistic when they met in San Diego for the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers’ annual summit.
The recount in Alaska over Ballot Measure 2 is complete. The state's Republican Party requested it after voters rejected the initiative and chose to keep their nonpartisan election system by a narrow margin. But as predicted on IVN, this margin wasn't narrow enough for the results to change.
The Alaska election results have officially been certified and despite calls from Measure 2 supporters for a recount of the ballot initiative's loss by 664 votes, the Alaska Division of Elections re-checked its work before certification and found worse news for them.
Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announced this week that taxpayers will foot the bill for a recount of Measure 2, an initiative that sought to repeal Alaska's nonpartisan election system -- but ultimately failed by 664 votes.
Two weeks after Election Day, Alaska voters finally know the fate of their election system. The choice before them was keep the nonpartisan Top 4 primary system with ranked choice voting in the general election or go back to partisan control over elections.
The nonpartisan group Oklahoma United announced Tuesday it has filed a citizen-led constitutional amendment to end closed primaries in the state and implement a nonpartisan primary system open to all voters and candidates.
Can you imagine a Republican winning in an electoral district in which Democrats make up 41% of the registered electorate? Seems farfetched in much of the country. As farfetched as a Democrat winning in a R+10 district.
Election Day was mostly a rough night for election reformers across the board, from primary reform to new voting methods to gerrymandering. However, it would be a mistake to suggest that this means voters are okay with the status quo.