Indiana to become 10th state to hold partisan school board elections
On May 6, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (R) signed Senate Bill 287 into law, making Indiana the 10th state to require or allow partisan school board elections. The law will take effect on July 1.
Currently, candidates in over 90% of school board elections across the country run in nonpartisan elections, including in Indiana.
Once SB 287 takes effect on July 1, Indiana will be one of six states that allow both partisan and nonpartisan school board elections. The other states are Georgia, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Four other states—Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania—require school board candidates to run only in partisan elections. In 41 states, school board candidates run in nonpartisan elections only. That number will fall to 40 on July 1.
Legislators in at least 14 states have introduced at least 19 bills on candidates using party labels in school board elections this year.
A comprehensive look at 144 years of ballot measures in Michigan
In Wednesday’s Daily Brew, we looked at historical ballot measures in Michigan. Our comprehensive inventory of Michigan ballot measures spans from 1880 to 2024. In that time, Michigan voters decided on 319 measures, approving 165 and defeating 154—a 51.7% approval rate.
Michigan ballot measures have addressed 132 unique topics. The most common topics are related to local government organization (19 measures), highways and bridges (19 measures), and property taxes (19 measures).
Iowa governor signs law changing election recount procedures
On June 2, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed House File 928 into law, which limits who can request election recounts and establishes that the state will pay for them.
The bill, which takes effect July 1, says:
- Federal and statewide candidates may only request a recount if there is a 0.15% difference in votes.
- Local and state legislative candidates may only request a recount if the difference is less than 1% or 50 votes, whichever is less.
- County commissioners, rather than individuals the candidates select, must conduct the recounts. Under the new law, candidates can still appoint up to five people to observe the recount.
Iowa will become the 18th state to specify a margin for candidates to request a recount. Twenty-five states do not require a specific margin for a candidate to request a recount, while seven states do not allow candidates to request a recount. In one state, Louisiana, the number of outstanding absentee/mail-in ballots must be enough to change the election outcome to request a recount.
So far this year, lawmakers have introduced 57 bills related to recounts. Of the bills introduced this year, Democrats have sponsored 26, and Republicans have sponsored 22.
In addition to Iowa, five other states–Indiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota– have modified their recount laws this year.