Voters in Oklahoma City approved a proposition relating to mayoral and city council elections.

Proposition 1 amends the city charter by changing the names of “primary” and “general” elections to “general” and “runoff” elections.

Additionally, the proposition sets the regular general election date for mayoral elections to the second Tuesday in February 2022 and every four years going forward instead of existing primary mayoral election dates set as the second Tuesday in March.

Proposition 1 also sets the regular general election date for city council elections as the second Tuesday in odd-numbered years instead of the existing primary city council election date set as the first Tuesday in March.

The regular runoff election date for both mayoral and city council elections would be set to the first Tuesday in April immediately following the general election.

Lastly, the proposition adds specific processes for if the city council creates more than eight city wards and provides elected officials take officer four weeks rather than one week after the runoff election.

Proposition 1 took effect when passed 73% to 27% on November 3.

The team of Lt. Gov. Lemanu Palepoi Sialega Mauga, candidate for governor, and running mate, Talauega Eleasalo Va’alele Ale, candidate for lieutenant governor, won the gubernatorial race during the general election according to the unofficial results.

The unofficial results were released with a total of 11,861 ballots counted with Lemanu and Talauega receiving almost 61% of the votes.

Local law states a special or run-off election is held two weeks after the general election if none of the candidates received 50% plus one vote.

There is a seven-day waiting period before the chief election officer certifies the results as official.

Campaign Finance

Oregon: “Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s $150,000 Loan to His Own Campaign Wasn’t Illegal, City Auditor Says” by Everton Bailey Jr. for Portland Oregonian

Elections

National: “Trump Campaign Mounts Challenges in Four States as Narrow Margins Raise Stakes for Battles Over Which Ballots Will Count” by Elise Viebeck, Robert Barnes, Tom Hamburger, and Rosalind Helderman (Washington Post) for MSN

National: “GOP Holds Line in State Legislatures, Dealing Blow to Democrats” by Reid Wilson for The Hill

Arkansas: “2 Issues on State Ballot Approved by Voters” by Michael Wickline for Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Mississippi: “Mississippi Approves Flag with Magnolia, ‘In God We Trust’” by Emily Wagster Pettus for Associated Press News

North Dakota: “North Dakota Voters Reject Measure 2 by Wide Margin” by Jeremy Turley for Grand Forks Herald

Ohio: “Embattled Former Ohio House Speaker Easily Wins Re-Election” by J.D. Davidson for The Center Square

Ethics

National: “U.S. Supreme Court Hands Narrow Win to Black Lives Matter Activist Over Protest Incident” by Lawrence Hurley for Reuters

New York: “Judge Rules Sterne Agee Analyst Complicit in NY Pension Pay-to-Play Scheme” by Michael Katz for Chief Investment Officer

With no candidate securing a majority, one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate races is heading for a runoff election.

Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler will face each other in the runoff election scheduled for January 5, 2021.

Ohio Republicans maintained a supermajority in the state Senate and House of Representatives in yesterday’s election.

Most notably, Rep. Larry Householder was reelected after being removed from his leadership post as House speaker.

This came following his arrest and indictment earlier this year in connection with a $60 million federal racketeering case related to House Bill 6.

Householder was the only name on the ballot and was endorsed by the local Republican party.

Republican colleagues in the House considered removing him from the chamber earlier this fall.

However, if they had done so before his reelection they would not be able to remove him again, as a lawmaker cannot be expelled twice.

The only option now is to wait until the legislative session begins in January to consider expulsion or impeachment.

Householder would be automatically removed from office if he is convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Ohio law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony or bribery charges from holding public office.

Incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Parson won reelection as governor of Missouri over Democratic challenger Nicole Galloway by roughly 16 percentage points as of Wednesday morning with greater than 98% of votes counted.

Third-party candidates, Libertarian Rik Combs and Green Party candidate Jerome Bauer pulled in just over 2% of the votes combined.

Voters passed a state constitutional amendment paving the way for the Oregon State Legislature and local lawmakers to limit political contributions and expenditures.

Measure 107 also allows for rules regarding disclosure of campaign activity in order to require campaigns to be transparent about who paid for political advertisements.

Currently, there are no contribution limits due to Oregon Supreme Court rulings declaring campaign finance reform to be in violation of the state constitution. Measure 107 is retroactive, but only to legislation passed on or after January 1, 2016.

Incumbent Gov. Phil Scott won reelection for a third term as Governor of Vermont and defeated a challenge from current Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman.

Gov. Scott has one of the highest governor approval ratings in the country and won the reelection by receiving nearly 69% of the vote.

On November 3, incumbent Chris Sununu won reelection for his third term as Governor of New Hampshire.

Gov. Sununu defeated Democrat challenger Dan Feltes, the state Senate majority leader.

Gov. Sununu easily won reelection by receiving a projected 65% of the vote.

In a close vote, Rhode Island voters approved Question 1, a resolution to change the state name.

The resolution removes the term “and Providence Plantations” from the official state name referenced in the Preamble, Article III, and Article IX of the Rhode Island Constitution.

The governor and several political leaders have previously removed the term from official state and local documents over the summer.

New Jersey voters approved Question 3, a resolution proposing to delay the legislative redistricting schedule due to the collection of census data.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the United States Census Bureau to delay its procedures for collecting census data.

The approved constitutional amendment requires the Apportionment Commission to delay its adoption of new legislative districts until after the November 2021 election, if the United States Census Bureau does not provide the governor the redistricting census data by February 15, 2021.

On Election Day, voters defeated Question 2, an Act to Implement Ranked-Choice Voting in Elections.

The initiative was proposed to create a ranked-choice voting system in which voters rank one or more candidates by order of preference.

Ranked-choice voting would have been used in primary and general elections for all Massachusetts statewide offices, state legislative offices, federal congressional offices, and certain other offices.

However, ranked choice voting would exclude elections for president, county commissioner, or regional district school committee members.

Voters defeated a constitutional amendment that would have required approval of the legislature or voter approval twice for all initiated ballot measures.

The amendment needed a simple majority of votes to pass.

As of Wednesday morning, with 91% of votes counted, the measure was defeated by 24%.

On November 3, voters reelected incumbent John Carney to a second term as Governor of Delaware, defeating Republican challenger Julianne Murray.

During the campaign, Gov. Carney received criticism from the opposing party on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This included a public mask mandate, as well as business shutdowns.

The election was expected to show whether Delaware voters approved of his administration’s handling of the pandemic.

Gov. Carney is constitutionally limited to two terms and may not seek another term in 2024.