Ballot Measures

Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections.

John Frank at Axios:

By the numbers: This year, voters in 41 states will have considered 159 ballot measures, with most appearing on Nov. 5, according to Ballotpedia, a tracking service.The vast majority were referred to voters by state lawmakers and commissions, while the remainder came from citizens who collected petitions to qualify.

What they're saying: The presidential election is a prime time for ballot measures because of the high turnout, said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, the executive director at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a progressive group.Other factors include partisan blockages at the state level, political parties trying to turn out issue-driven voters and the Dobbs decision, which has led to a record number of abortion-related referendums.

The big picture: The referendum count is on par with even-year elections when the average number of ballot measures is 161, said Ryan Byrne at Ballotpedia.

• 10 states — including Arizona, Colorado, Florida and New York — are deciding whether to protect access to abortion or place limits on it.
• Five states and Washington, D.C., are considering overhauls to how elected leaders are picked, whether through changes to primary elections, ranked choice voting or both.
• Three states — Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota — are weighing whether to legalize marijuana.

The intrigue: Though the overall numbers are consistent, the 57 citizen-led initiatives this year are the most in a presidential election year since the 76 in 2016.

PPIC shows that Californians still have a conservative streak on crime:

Proposition 36 would allow felony charges for possessing certain drugs and for theft under $950, if the defendant has two prior drug or theft convictions. After reading the Proposition 36 ballot title and summary, 73 percent of likely voters say they would vote yes, while 25 percent would vote no. In September, findings were nearly identical (71% yes, 26% no). Today, as there was last month, there is broad—and bipartisan—support for Proposition 36. Regionally, support is highest in the Inland Empire (80%) and lowest in Los Angeles (70%, 71% Orange/San Diego, 73% Central Valley, 73% San Francisco Bay Area). Two in three or more across demographic groups would vote yes on Proposition 36.

...

 Proposition 6 (Eliminates Constitutional Provision Allowing Involuntary Servitude for Incarcerated Persons). Likely voters are slightly more likely to say they would vote no (56%) than yes (41%) on this legislative constitutional amendment. Support for this measure has declined slightly since September (46% yes, 50% no).

 

Trump and Alaska

 Our recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. Trump and his minions falsely claimed that he won the election, and have kept repeating the Big Lie.  And we now know how close he came to subverting the Constitution.    

Oh my. I particularly like the reference to “Murkowsky.” https://t.co/X2i1hnQwYy

— Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) October 25, 2022

Alaska GOP Censures McConnell For Backing Murkowski https://t.co/FdE17IfKkh via @TPM

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 25, 2022

Ranked-Choice Voting in Alaska

Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections. 

 Mark Z. Barabak at LAT:

Isolation aside, Alaska has changed its elections in way that may be a model for the rest of the country as the U.S. sinks ever lower into a slough of political nihilism and dysfunction.

Starting this year, candidates will run in a one-of-a-kind system that starts by placing all of them on the same ballot, regardless of party. Then the top four vote-getters advance to the general election, at which voters will rank them in order of preference.

The idea is to reward candidates who show broad appeal and to undermine the hard-liners on both sides, resulting — in theory — in lawmakers more willing to get stuff done and leave the noxious political antics to the noisemakers on cable news and talk radio and the rabble on social media.

...

Others are eyeing the system. There are nearly 20 states, including Oregon and Nevada, where legislation has been introduced or advocates are pushing ballot measures to institute ranked-choice voting, according to FairVote, a nonpartisan organization that promotes the change.

The limited practice has already produced positive results.

New York City, which used ranked-choice voting for the first time in last year’s mayoral race, saw turnout rise by 13%.

A study of four Bay Area cities that have adopted the system since 2000 — San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro — found an increase in the percentage of candidates of color seeking office, as well as an increased probability of female candidates and female candidates of color being elected.

Ranked-Choice Voting and the NY Mayor Race

Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections. 

Michael Gold, Jeffery C. Mays and Emma G. Fitzsimmons at NYT:

Andrew Yang had been hinting for days that he might form an alliance with one of his rivals in the New York City mayor’s race to stop the front-runner, Eric Adams, from winning the Democratic primary.

On Friday night, Mr. Yang announced he would spend Saturday campaigning with Kathryn Garcia, another leading candidate, in an apparent signal of a likely cross-endorsement, or something close to it.

An email from his campaign said Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia planned on Saturday to attend a rally, greet voters and hold a news conference together, grabbing attention in the final days of the race. A spokesman for Mr. Yang, Jake Sporn, would not say if the joint events meant the candidates would cross-endorse each other.

“Stay tuned,” he said.

Cross-endorsements are a common feature of ranked-choice elections — a voting system that New York City is using for the first time in a mayoral election. Candidates encourage their supporters to rank another candidate second on their ballot, boosting both campaigns.