on September 2 and September 3, the California legislature acted on several election bills of interest.
The Assembly passed SB 34, which makes it illegal to pay initiative petition circulators on a per-signature basis. The bill now goes to the Governor, who is expected to veto it.
The Senate on September 3 gave a tie vote to AB 1121, 19-19. Bills lose on a tie vote. However, reconsideration was granted, so there will probably be a new vote. Two Senators didn’t vote the first time. AB 1121 is the bill to let 10 non-charter cities or counties use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections.
The bill to provide that independent voters must be told, at the polls on primary day, that they are free to choose a Republican ballot, a Democratic ballot, or an American Independent Party ballot, was tabled in the Senate on the motion of Senator Abel Maldonado. The bill, AB 909, had passed the Assembly and all Senate committees. The fact that the bill was tabled almost certainly means that it won’t pass this year, although it could be a 2-year bill and pass in 2010. However, in that case, it wouldn’t take effect in time for the 2010 primary.
I’m hardly surprised that Maldonado would want this tabled. It’s part of the sleazy tactics that he is using to push Top Two on California. After all, he held the state’s budget hostage in the middle of the worst economy since the 1930s so that he could get Top Two on the ballot. He hypocritically decried “gridlock” and blamed the “hyper-partisans” and “extremists”.
Now, he wants to keep independent voters ignorant of their right to vote in California’s Democratic, Republican, and AIP primaries. If independents know that they can already vote in the primaries, it could risk undermining support for Top Two. Why would they need to solve something that isn’t a problem?
The real problem is that California combines its partisan primary with non-partisan elections at which city and county officials are elected and ballot measures are also considered. This tends to screen out DTS voters who may believe that they can only vote if they affiliate with a political party.
For example, in June 2008 in California, 32.8% of Republicans, 29.7% of Democrats, 23.6% of Greens, 20.7% of Libertarians voted, but only 19.6% of DTS voters voted.
The statewide non-partisan election should be open to all voters, with the partisan primaries conducted on a separate day and place.
Interestingly, in the February, 2008 Presidential Primary the voter participation percentages ended up being the highest for the Democrat Party and declining directly in order of each party’s current registration place with the Peace & Freedom Party having the lowest voting percentage of 21.8%. Which was a little below the DTS/NQPP total of 23.3%. Remember even if a voter didn’t want to vote for President, Propositions 91-97 were also on that ballot. So it may be that a lot of the DTS voters are people who use it as a place holder, just in case, something or someone ends up on the ballot that they really want to vote for.