Welcome to the Friday, October 22, Brew. 

By: Doug Kronaizl

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

1. Take a deep dive into our coverage of campaign finance in Virginia’s House races
2. A look back at government responses to the coronavirus pandemic, Oct. 19-23, 2020
3. #FridayTrivia: By this date in 2011, how many states had enacted congressional redistricting maps?

Take a deep dive into our coverage of campaign finance in Virginia’s House races

Ballotpedia has published a series of articles analyzing candidate fundraising in the 2021 Virginia House of Delegates elections. These articles are part of a larger partnership with Transparency USA to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections.

Collecting campaign finance information for federal elections is a relatively straightforward process: all candidates running for federal office must file with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) which compiles and released data in bulk with a standardized format.

This information is less readily available in state-level elections where each state has its own campaign finance agency with its own standards for reporting, processing, and publishing campaign finance data. Transparency USA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3), has streamlined access to this information allowing us to provide a similar level of detailed financial information for state-level races.

As part of a pilot program, we have worked with Transparency USA to collect information in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In 2022, we plan to expand this informative campaign finance coverage to state executive and state legislative races across the country

In Virginia, the only state on the list above holding state legislative elections this year, Democrats have a 55-45 House majority. There are 93 districts with both a Democratic and Republican candidate on the ballot this Nov. 2, a decade high for the chamber. This is also the first election cycle since 1999 with Democrats defending a majority in the chamber.

Ballotpedia has identified 22 battleground districts in the chamber—16 held by Democrats and six by Republicans—shown below:

Here’s a comprehensive list of the items we’ve written on candidate fundraising in these contests:

• Democrats outraise Republicans by 154% in Virginia state legislative races
• The five Virginia House districts with the most fundraising this cycle all have Democratic incumbents
• Two of the five Virginia House districts with the lowest total donations this cycle are 2019 rematches
• Three of the top five fundraisers to lose a Virginia House primary this cycle were incumbent Democrats
• Top five donors to Democratic and Republican candidates for Virginia House
• Democratic incumbents in VA House elections raised 126% more money than Republican incumbents
• Eight of 13 Virginia House committee chairs raised less money than the average member this cycle
• Democratic candidates in Virginia House battleground districts raised 69% more money than Republican candidates
• House District 12 tops Virginia battleground fundraising list with nearly identical candidate donation totals

Plus, we have several more stories planned between now and election day on both Ballotpedia News and here in the Brew.

Keep reading 

A look back at government responses to the coronavirus pandemic, Oct. 19-23, 2020

Although the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was confirmed on Jan. 21, 2020, it wasn’t until March when the novel coronavirus upended life for most Americans. Throughout the year, states issued stay-at-home orders, closed schools, restricted travel, issued mask mandates, and changed election dates. We periodically look back at what was happening one year ago at this time. 

Here are some of the policy changes that happened one year ago between Oct. 19 and 23. To read more of our past coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, click here. 

Monday, Oct. 19, 2020

• Election changes:
  • The North Carolina State Board of Elections directed counties to accept absentee/mail-in ballots received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 12 and postmarked on or before Election Day. The state board of elections also issued new guidance on how voters could resolve problems with their absentee/mail-in ballots.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s order extending the receipt deadline for mail-in ballots to Nov. 6 for ballots postmarked on or before Election Day.

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020

• Stay-at-home orders and reopening plans:
  • Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) announced he would extend an executive order allowing local governments to impose mask requirements through the end of the year.
• Election changes:
  • The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit declined to block the extension of North Carolina’s absentee/mail-in ballot return and receipt deadlines. As a result, ballots would be accepted if they were postmarked on or before Election Day and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 12.

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020 

• Election changes:
  • The Iowa Supreme Court upheld an Iowa law barring county election officials from sending absentee/mail-in ballots to voters who omitted information on their ballot application forms.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-3 vote, reinstated Alabama’s prohibition against curbside voting.
• Federal government responses:
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance changing the definition of close contact for an individual infected with coronavirus. Under previous guidelines, close contact was defined as someone who spent at least 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of a confirmed coronavirus case. The new guidance defined a close contact as someone who was within six feet of a confirmed coronavirus case for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020

• Stay-at-home orders and reopening plans:
  • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ordered nursing homes and assisted living facilities to allow children to visit residents indoors. His order also allowed outdoor visits regardless of a facility’s case count, as long as visitors and residents practiced social distancing and wore masks.

Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

• Election changes:
  • Texas’ Third Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s Oct. 14 ruling that suspended Governor Greg Abbott’s (R) order restricting the number of absentee/mail-in ballot return locations to one per county.
  • The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled election officials could not reject a mail-in ballot because the signature on the ballot return documents did not appear to match the voter’s signature on file.

For the most recent coronavirus news, including the latest on vaccines and mask mandates, subscribe to our daily newsletter, Documenting America’s Path to Recovery.

Keep reading 

#FridayTrivia: By this date in 2011, how many states had enacted congressional redistricting maps?

In Wednesday’s Brew, we gave an update on redistricting following the 2020 census. As of Oct. 21, four states—Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, and Oregon—have adopted and enacted new congressional district maps. By this date, Oct. 22, in 2011, following the 2010 census, how many states had enacted congressional district maps?

1. 3
2. 48
3. 13
4. 24

Welcome to the Thursday, October 21, Brew. 

By: David Luchs

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

1. Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project brings your questions to candidates in six cities
2. How many state legislative vacancies have opened this year? Ballotpedia has the numbers
3. San Francisco school board recall elections scheduled for Feb. 15

Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project brings your questions to candidates in six cities

Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey offers candidates the opportunity to connect with voters by answering questions that speak to who they are as a person and what their motivations are for seeking political office as well as questions about their message and policies. In 2020, 4,745 candidates completed the Candidate Connection survey.

This year, Ballotpedia launched the Candidate Connection Expansion Project to give voters a more direct connection to the candidates they elect. Our readers in six pilot cities submitted custom questions for their candidates. An advisory board selected between three to five questions in each city to be incorporated into our candidate survey.

As of Oct. 20, 2021, 52 candidates running for office in all six cities have answered the questions submitted by Ballotpedia readers like you. The respondents include five mayoral candidates—four in Minneapolis and one in Atlanta.

In Atlanta, both candidates for city council District 9—Devin Barrington-Ward and Dustin Hillis—answered community questions in their Candidate Connection surveys. Selected responses from both are reproduced below:

What do you think about the transit options currently available in Atlanta? Would you make any changes?

Barrington-Ward: Transit options overwhelmingly favor bus service and the rail service that is available favors communities with high incomes and more access. I would shift our transit expansion projects to prioritize northwest, west, and southwest Atlanta communities and ensure that low income communities are afforded opportunities to work on these projects to help increase household incomes.

Hillis: I believe bus routes should be modified to go more places, more frequently – with the priority being areas where residents need and rely on public transportation the most. I supported the More MARTA plan, which will bring a new and full-sized Bankhead MARTA station to District 9 and more light rail lines.

What plans do you have regarding infrastructure?

Barrington-Ward: Use large public infrastructure projects to address issues around transportation, housing, and climate change while also putting people to work as a means of reducing poverty, income disparities, and crime throughout District 9 and Atlanta.

Hillis: I support the city going to voters in May 2022 to approve the Renew Atlanta Bonds and TSPLOST 2.0 in order to fund hundreds of millions of dollars more in much-needed infrastructure improvements.

What question would you have for a candidate running for political office in your local elections? Let us know—maybe your nomination could make it into a future survey!

Keep reading

How many state legislative vacancies have opened this year? Ballotpedia has the numbers

A vacancy opening in Congress, as last happened with Rep. Steve Stivers’ (R) resignation in May to serve as president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, often invites national media coverage and attention. However, vacancies opening in state legislative chambers tend to draw less attention. Starting in 2019, Ballotpedia has published publicly available articles summarizing each state legislative vacancy that opened in a given year, how and when it was filled, and whether control of the seat changed as a result.

So far in 2021, there have been 113 state legislative vacancies opening in 41 states. A plurality (52) were opened when the legislator resigned, with another 20 opening when a legislator died. The remaining vacancies include 37 that opened when the legislator took a different office and four that opened when a legislator was removed from office.

Seventy-two of the 113 vacancies opened this year (64%) have been filled. Forty-two of those vacancies were filled via appointment and 30 were filled via special election. This year, there have been three seats where a legislator of a different party filled a vacancy—two where a Republican legislator succeeded a Democrat and one where a Democrat succeeded a Republican.

In 2019, the last odd-numbered year, 177 state legislative vacancies opened across 45 states. Republicans lost a net two seats owing to vacancies opening in 2019, while Democrats and independents each gained a net one seat.

Keep reading 

San Francisco school board recall elections scheduled for Feb. 15

Recall elections against three of the seven members of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education in California have been scheduled for Feb. 15, 2022. Petitions to recall board members Gabriela López, Alison Collins, and Faauuga Moliga were certified in October 2021.

Recall sponsor Siva Raj said the effort was “a campaign to get politics out of education…What we saw consistently was a pattern where the school board leadership focused on a lot of political stunts and symbolic gestures like trying to rename schools, and doing that ultimately badly.”

In response to the recall effort, López said, “The people who are behind this don’t know us, they don’t know our work, they don’t know what we’ve been doing, they don’t know what we are dedicated to…They hear what’s out there and they recognize this is an opportunity to bring down someone who is me.”

All three board members named in the recall petitions were first elected to the board on Nov. 6, 2018. They received the most votes in an at-large election, defeating 16 other candidates. The other four members of the board were not eligible for recall at the same time as López, Collins, and Moliga as they had not served in their current terms for six months. They were elected or re-elected to the board on Nov. 3, 2020.

To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters had 160 days to collect signatures from 10% of registered voters in the city. The total number of signatures needed was 51,325 per board member, and the deadline to submit them was Sept. 7. If a majority of voters cast ballots in favor of the recall on Feb. 15, the mayor of San Francisco will appoint replacements.

Ballotpedia has tracked 81 school board recall efforts against 209 board members so far in 2021—the highest number of school board recall efforts we have tracked in one year. The next-highest year was in 2010 with 38 recall efforts against 91 school board members.

In the first half of 2021, Ballotpedia tracked 164 recall efforts against 262 officials. This was the most recall efforts for this point in the year since the first half of 2016, when we tracked 189 recall efforts against 265 officials. In comparison, we tracked between 72 and 155 efforts by the midpoints of 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Keep reading