1. Explaining Louisiana’s majority-vote election system
2. Tracking activities affected by the coronavirus outbreak: Nursing home visits
3. Maine voters approve bond measures July 14 for transportation and high-speed internet infrastructure

Explaining Louisiana’s majority-vote election system

The last major party filing deadline for Congressional elections is next week in Louisiana, where filing closes on July 24. Although there are differences in how each state conducts elections, Louisiana’s method is particularly unique. Readers of our Ballot Bulletin newsletter got a deep dive into how it all works earlier this week. 

All candidates running for a local, state, or federal office in Louisiana appear on the same ballot in either October (in odd-numbered years) or November (in even-numbered years), regardless of their partisan affiliations. If a candidate wins a simple majority of all votes cast for the office being sought (i.e., 50 percent, plus one vote), the candidate wins the election outright. If no candidate meets that threshold, the top two finishers, regardless of their partisan affiliations, advance to a second election in December. In that election, the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes wins.

One term often used to describe this electoral system is jungle primary. We think that term presents two problems. First, it has negative connotations. In this context, the adjectival use of jungle suggests disorderliness and chaos. Its use infers a negative judgment against the electoral system. Second, the term lacks descriptive force. It does little to explain the substance or function of the system it is used to describe. 

Louisiana's secretary of state describes the state's electoral system as a "majority-vote primary paired with a plurality-vote general election:" This electoral system is unique to Louisiana. Thus, Ballotpedia describes it as the "Louisiana majority-vote system," which hews closely to the terms presently used by the Louisiana secretary of state. 

Louisiana’s system differs from election methods known as blanket primaries or top-two primaries, as described here. No state currently conducts blanket primaries for state-level and congressional elections and California and Washington conduct top-two primaries for all state-level and congressional elections.

To learn more about this topic—and other issues regarding election policy—subscribe to our newsletter covering elections methods, The Ballot Bulletin. Each issue summarizes prominent events relating to electoral systems, redistricting, and voter provisions around the nation.

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Tracking activities affected by the coronavirus outbreak: Nursing home visits 

States are making a variety of changes to their policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) announced on Twitter July 16 that he was modifying the state’s color-coded reopening plan to allow all remaining school districts to reopen. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) announced that she will sign an executive order delaying the start of the public school year in the state until Sept. 9 and requiring districts to use masks.

In our daily newsletter, Documenting America's Path to Recovery, we track the status of restrictions put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic for 27 industries and activities in all 50 states. Yesterday, we looked at which states have placed limitations on visitation to nursing homes.

To clarify, our classification in the charts and maps below does not include end-of-life or other emergency-related visits. States that limit visits to family members only, or where visits are only allowed outdoors, are counted as "visitors allowed." 

We last looked at nursing home visitation in the July 8th edition of the newsletter. Since then, no new states have allowed or restricted visitation.   

Speaking of nursing homes, I wanted to share this story from the Good News Network about residents of a senior care facility in London that used their time in lockdown and without visitors to do photoshoots of some classic album covers. The residents recreated images of albums by Taylor Swift, Adele, David Bowie, and others. It’s a really neat story and shows how some folks are adjusting to changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic. I hope you’ll enjoy this lighthearted story as much as I did. 

Maine voters approve bond measures July 14 for transportation and high-speed internet infrastructure

Voters in Maine approved two measures on July 14 providing for new bonds designed to fund infrastructure projects for transportation and high-speed internet. Based on unofficial results, both measures received support from more than 75% of voters.

• Maine Question 1 authorizes $15 million in general obligation bonds for the ConnectME Authority to provide funding for high-speed internet infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas. As of March 2020, the ConnectME Authority defined unserved areas as places where broadband service is not offered and underserved areas as places where less than 20 percent of households have access to broadband service. Unofficial results show 75% voting ‘yes’ on the measure.

• Maine Question 2 authorizes $105 million in general obligation bonds for transportation infrastructure projects, including $90 million for highways, bridges, and MaineDOT's Municipal Partnership Initiative (MPI) and $15 million for multimodal facilities and equipment related to transit, freight and passenger railroads, aviation, ports, harbors, marine transportation, and active transportation projects. The bond revenue would be used to match an estimated $275 million in federal and other funds. Unofficial results show 77.5% voting ‘yes’ on the measure.

The state constitution requires that voters approve all state general obligation bonds exceeding $2 million. Both measures approved on July 14 were put to the legislature at the request of Gov. Janet Mills (D). A two-thirds vote in both chambers of the legislature is required for the items to appear on the ballot. The state House approved the measures by a vote of 124-7. In the state Senate, a roll call was not recorded but the vote exceeded the two-thirds requirement. 

Maine voters have approved 40 of 41 general obligation bond issues since January 1, 2007.

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