[EM] ElectoramaWeekly(-ish) and the May 20 ElectoramaCall

[Rob Lanphier]

Hi folks,

Carlo Miranda, Taylor Eigen Fisher, and I recorded the second episode of
"ElectoramaWeekly", a weekly(-ish) videocast that may become a podcast one
day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD1C_scSEYk

This week, we discussed this year's California governor's race, which
involves a "jungle primary" election held on June 2 (with 61 candidates on
the ballot, though two of them have already dropped out).  The top two
plurality winners advance to the general election in a pairwise
competition.  Those of y'all unfamiliar with the situation can read more on
the electowiki article:
https://electowiki.org/wiki/2026_California_gubernatorial_election

We also discussed the following:

   - Virginia’s ranked-choice voting local-option bill (SB 176 / Chapter
   993 and HB 630 / Chapter 1062, effective July 1, 2026).
      - https://legiscan.com/VA/bill/SB176/2026
   - Ohio's Senate Bill 395 introducing a “top-three primary” plus
   “consensus choice” general-election bill.
      -
      https://edwardbfoley.substack.com/p/ohio-bill-to-enact-top-3-direct-consensus
      - https://www.betterchoicesohio.org/top3headtohead
      -
      https://www.nbc4i.com/news/politics/legislation-aims-to-overhaul-ohio-elections-with-consensus-voting/
   - Bram Cohen's blog post “Approval Voting Is A Bad Idea”.  Cohen is the
   inventor of BitTorrent:
      - https://bramcohen.com/p/approval-voting-is-a-bad-idea
   - Most active discussions on the EM-list (e.g. Gustav Thorzen's thread
   about "Majority-Beat vs Plurality-Beat Condorcet")
      -
      http://lists.electorama.com/pipermail/election-methods-electorama.com/2026-April/thread.html#7145
   - Most active posts on the Voting Theory forum, including “Smith Primary
   to Approval”
      - https://votingtheory.org/forum/topic/608/smith-primary-to-approval/
   - An online proposal by Equal Vote Coalition to change top-two plurality
   to top-two approval in California
      - https://www.equal.vote/upgradetoptwo?recruiter_id=300434

Though we touched on the items above, the bulk of our ElectoramaWeekly time
this week was spent discussing the craziness in the California gubinatorial
race.

All previous and future episodes of ElectoramaWeekly can be found here:
https://electowiki.org/wiki/ElectoramaNews/Weekly

I also want to plug the ElectoramaCall coming up in a week (on Wednesday,
May 20 at 2pm Pacific):
https://electowiki.org/wiki/ElectoramaCall

We'll discuss what should be the focus of future ElectoramaWeekly
videocasts and what the focus of the ElectoramaNews monthly newsletter for
May should be.

I'm hoping Carlo and Taylor are generally available many/most weeks
(especially this coming week), but I'd still like to have a queue of
possible guest hosts and guests.  What's the difference between a "guest
host" and a "guest"?  The "guest host" works with me to prepare a crude
outline/script we can use to keep us on track, and isn't the focus of the
show.  A "guest" is someone we ask questions of, and we probably won't even
share our list of prepared questions with them.  We haven't had a proper
guest yet, but suggestions welcome!

If you have suggestions for either possible "guest hosts" or "guests", send
mail to news at electorama.com or add a comment here:
https://electowiki.org/wiki/Talk:ElectoramaNews/Weekly

Self-nominations are welcome!  No guarantees that we'll have you as a guest
host or a guest, but we'd love help.

Speaking of that help: we have one big question that needs an answer soon.
 What electowiki article seems like a great topic for us to focus on in our
next ElectowikiWeekly videocast?  My bias would be to dive deeper into Ohio
SB 395, and ensure we draft material to read from in the Ohio article:
https://electowiki.org/wiki/Ohio

Rob
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