Partisan Reactions to California Top Two Continue

CALIFORNIA TOP TWO

• California State Appeals Court Hears Arguments over Injunctive Relief in Top-Two Details Lawsuit (Ballot Access News) On September 7, the California Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments in Field v Bowen. The issue is two particular aspects of the California top-two system (Proposition 14), and whether the Superior Court should have granted injunctive relief in a special election earlier this year.
• Lawmaker-residency bill dropped until 2012 (LA Times/PolitiCal) Jones said the bill was being held until 2012 in connection with other provisions in the measure that apply to California's new "open primary" system, which allows the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, to advance to the general election.
• California Legislative Analysis Shows Election Administration-Related Problems Caused by Prop. 14 (Ballot Access News) The analysis also says, “This bill shortens the format in which a candidate’s party preference is displayed on the ballot, shortens and clarifies the ballot instructions that appear on the ballot, and eliminates certain type size and typeface requirements to give county elections officials greater flexibility to format their ballots. These changes should help address some of the concerns raised by elections officials in this committee’s oversight hearing.”
• California push to change candidate residency laws scrapped (Sac Bee/Capitol Alert, Torey Van Oot) The current language for Assembly Bill 1413 was inserted into an existing bill just one week ahead of the scheduled end of the legislative session. But the effort was abandoned today, just hours after a scheduled hearing on the bill has been postponed, as supporters decided to hold off on action until next year.

Political Parties Attempt to Undermine Top Two Election Reform in California

CALIFORNIA TOP TWO

• Dan Walters: Fun, games mark California Legislature's final week (By Dan Walters, Sac Bee) • There's an 11th-hour flurry of efforts to alter election rules, including a still-unwritten bill sought by Democrats and unions to make all initiative measures go on the November ballot, and a newly written bill that would effectively end write-in votes for state offices, thus settling a legal issue over the impact of Proposition 14, the new "top-two" primary election system.
• California State Senate to Vote on Abolishing Write-in Space on General Election Ballots on Wednesday, September 7 (Ballot Access News) The California Senate will vote on Wednesday, September 7, on AB 1413. The bill abolishes write-in space on California general election ballots for Congress and state office.
• Political parties attempt to undermine open primary election reform in California (by Chad Peace, CAIVN) In an attempt to blunt the upcoming top-two open primary's ability to limit political party control over elections in California, the state Assembly is trying to change the way a candidate's political party appears on the ballot. Proposition 14, passed by the voters in 2010, changed the primary system to consolidate all of the candidates onto one ballot, with the top two vote getters advancing to the general election. Candidates are only required to list their party preference, allowing Independents to run with the ballot designation "no party preference." AB 1413 aims to undermine the reforms by changing "party preference" to "party affiliation," interjecting political party influence back into open primaries.

Cure for Partisanship: Less Reality, More Artificiality

Note to Stuart Rotherberg: " The reality of our current politics of division and partisanship is not what many would prefer, but at least it is real." At least it's real?? With a reality like this, maybe we should try more artificiality. At least THAT we could live with!

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Political Unity Peaked After Attacks (By Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call) There are possible institutional changes that could produce more centrist elected officials — more open primaries, more states using commissions to draw Congressional and legislative district lines, a third political party in the center, for example — but those changes are difficult to bring about, and it isn’t clear how much change each proposal would produce. The reality of our current politics of division and partisanship is not what many would prefer, but at least it is real. Those periods after 9/11 and after Giffords’ near-fatal attack, when Americans focused on self-reflection and healing, were aberrations. Both tragedies created artificial moments of when important public policy questions were put aside.
• State Senate set to ban general election write-in voting (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) Today, the State Senate is scheduled to vote on AB 1413, a bill that would address this inconsistency by banning all write-in candidates from the general election ballot for voter-nominated offices and removing the space for write-in votes from the those ballots.  The bill under consideration in the Senate is substantially different from the one that was initially  proposed in the Assembly and passed through committee.  AB 1413 was introduced into the legislature on March 14th by the chair of the Assembly's Committee on Elections and Redistricting, Paul Fong.
• Parties active in nonpartisan election - Turnout could be higher from efforts by Republicans and Democrats. (BY ANDREW KENNEY, The Cary News - NC) On Election Day municipal candidates won't be identified with the political parties that dominate state and national races, but party volunteers standing just outside the polls will make sure voters know who's who.