SB 104-14: Senate Special Elections Amendment (Rejected)

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Not a fan of holding nationwide special elections. At-large terms are short enough that appointments aren't really a problem.

Fully agree. The appointment system has worked (mostly) fine over its history, and I'm not exactly a fan of having a vast difference in electorate sizes between the general and special elections for At-Large Senators (roughly 18-25 versus 50+ votes needed to win in each respective electorate).

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I would be more convinced if there were some attempt to fix the situation with resigning independents, as that is in fact an actual problem to be solved and one where the House (including myself) collectively faceplanted the last time we had this debate, but judging by his advocacy this does not appear to be a problem for the sponsor.

A potential solution for the Independent Senator problem could be to adopt a France-type system where the candidate names a substitute who would take their place in case the Independent prematurely leaves office. I would envision the system as having the Independent name their substitute before the election is held, though obviously there are alternative methods that exist for naming such a substitute. If there was support for such a system here in the Senate, I would be willing to introduce an alternative amendment to the floor to accomplish such an aim.

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At-large Senate special elections to me only sound like they'd sufficiently deal with Mr. Cao's concerns if the franchise is limited to those who preferenced them in their top three.

At least for myself, my issue with limiting the franchise in a special election is the inherently arbitrary nature of what preference number is chosen to be able to vote in the election. At the end of the day, partisan appointment for candidates who were elected under the label of a national party appears to be the least complicated and most logical option from the ones that have been presented given the fact that there is an inherent disconnect between the nature of a general At-large electorate and a special election electorate.

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Ultimately this is an instance of subtraction by addition. More democracy, via special elections, ultimately results in a less true representation of the voter base.

I wholeheartedly agree with both the President and Yankee.

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As it seems that debate has died down and there appears to be a general consensus, motion for a final vote.

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Nay.