California Court Upholds Labels for Ballot Status Parties in Top Two Elections; Arizona Independents Want Fair Access to Primaries

This ruling upholds a distinction between ballot status parties and other parties or candidates in how candidates are listed on the new Top Two election ballots in California. This distinction is a dubious one for third party advocates like Richard Winger, the country's leading ballot access expert. At a time when parties are losing favor among the electorate, at least part of the controversy over California's new open primary system seems to rest on the listing of party labels.

Where do you line up on my little survey?

A. Listing a party is important because it indicates the ideological position on a left-right political spectrum.
B. I don't like parties, I vote for the candidate.
C. What's ballot status and who benefits from that?
D. Other ________ (Tell me what you *really* think!)

Let me know what you think!

PROP 14
U.S. District Judge Upholds California’s Discriminatory Ballot Label Law (Ballot Access News) The opinion says that California has an interest in maintaining the distinction between qualified parties and unqualified parties, and cites various opinions from systems in which parties nominate candidates.

And meanwhile.....
OPEN PRIMARIES 
Tucson Independent voters in danger of being left out of Primary (Fox 11 AZ) It wasn't clear that the Independent voters needed to request a ballot.  So, yes we did make a mistake in that," said city spokesman Michael Graham. That mistake has since been corrected. The city says it mailed Independent voters a postcard on May 16 warning them they'd have to pick a party to vote in the primary.

Independent Voters: 40 Percent of the Electorate, Not Just Some Demographic Group

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• CBS Panel Cool on 'Far Right' GOP Candidates, 'Bush Looks Like Abraham Lincoln' (By Brad Wilmouth, NewsBusters) Avlon agreed that the GOP candidates are "far right": "That is a fundamental problem with the Republican Party that has moved from center right to far right, increasingly, and, look, independent voters are 40 percent of the electorate, the largest and the fastest growing segment. So this isn't just some, you know, demographic group you got to appeal to."


• Dan Walters: Older Democratic politicians clogging up the waiting line (By Dan Walters, Modesto Bee) Top Two: Regardless, it will empower the growing ranks of independent voters. And it may compel candidates to make wider appeals, rather than concentrating on the ideological true believers who have tended to dominate closed party primaries.

California Top Two Open Primary May Bring Bigger Cultural Changes Than Elimination of Partisan Gerrymadering

CALIFORNIA
November 2012 Targets - Part One: The Assembly (By Allan Hoffenblum, Publisher of the California Target Book and owner of Allan Hoffenblum & Associates, Fox & Hounds Daily) Somewhat surprising, it's beginning to appear that the top-two open primary may do more to change the culture in Sacramento than the elimination of the partisan gerrymandering.

Arizona Top Two Abolish Party Primaries

OPEN PRIMARIES
Arizona Group Wants to Abolish Party Primaries (KSAZ- Fox Phoenix) The Arizona Open Government Coalition wants to replace the party primaries with a single-primary system open to all voters. The two candidates with the most votes would advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.

California: Non-Partisan Redistricting, Libertarians and Top Two

CALIFORNIA

• Steven Greenhut: Left wins redistricting game in California (By STEVEN GREENHUT / Special to the Orange County Register) California’s new electoral districts crafted by a supposedly nonpartisan commission, which actually did the bidding of left-wing and ethnic interest groups, will almost certainly ensure a two-thirds legislative majority for tax-hiking Democrats.
• Libertarians bemoan new primary system, back pot (By Kyle Magin, The Union - SW Nevada County CA) The party's national Chairman Mark Hinkle was in Grass Valley on Friday rallying party members and prospective party members to both causes. Speaking before about 20 people at Mi Comida Mexican Restaurant, Hinkle railed against Proposition 14, a 2010 California ballot initiative that established an “open primary.” That means that during primary season, all candidates, regardless of party, will run against each other in the primary election. The top two, regardless of party, will move on to the general election. That spells trouble for third parties, Hinkle said. “The problem with that is third parties are not usually the top two vote-getters,” Hinkle said. “What happens to Libertarian ideas and Libertarian candidates after the primary? We're done.”
• Good Riddance to the Early Primary (By John Wildermuth, Fox & Hounds Daily) That's not what the state needs, especially this year. The primary will be the first election run in the new districts redrawn using the 2010 census data. It also will feature some important - and entertaining -- Democrat vs. Democrat and Republican vs. Republican scrums, made all the more interesting by California's new open primary rules. With all those changes, the state needs more primary voters, not fewer, if the ultimate results are going to be truly representative of the state.

Abel Maldonado May Benefit from Top Two + Independent Redistricting

CALIFORNIA

• Few political jolts in Monterey County redistricting plan (By LARRY PARSONS, Monterey Herald) The biggest buzz about the new maps is to the south of the county. Republicans are hoping the new 24th congressional district will enable Abel Maldonado, a former Republican state senator from Santa Maria who used to represent Monterey County, to defeat eight-term Democratic Rep. Lois Capps of Santa Barbara.
• Maldonado, Capps in SYV congressional race (By Marga K. Cooley/Associate Editor, Santa Ynez Valley News)

Voters Want Top Two Open Primaries

OPEN PRIMARIES

• California’s Golden Opportunity at Bipartisanship (Reid Wilson, National Journal/On the Trail) The second development, ironically, gives the parties much less say in selecting a nominee. Under a 2010 voter initiative, the top two finishers in a primary advance to the general election—regardless of their party affiliation. That means there is no guarantee a Republican or Democrat makes it through to November; a primary could just as easily produce two Republicans, or two Democrats (That was almost the case in a recent special election in California's 36th Congressional District, where a Republican businessman made it to the general election by a scant margin).
• Group seeks single primary to counter Ariz. party extremists (by Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic) The Arizona Open Government Coalition wants to replace those traditional primaries, which they largely blame for what they describe as the state's extremist politics, with a single-primary system open to all voters. Under its proposal, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, would advance to the general election.

Non-Partisan Primary for Arizona?

ARIZONA INDEPENDENT
Arizona's 2-party circus not working (by Linda Valdez, The Arizona Republic) Former Phoenix Mayor - and Democrat-turned-independent - Paul Johnson thinks he has a better way. He is working to bring a nonpartisan primary to Arizona. Language for a ballot initiative is written and is being reviewed, he said. Within 30 days, the work will begin to collect signatures for the Open Government Initiative. This constitutional change would replace partisan primaries with a single election open to all candidates and all registered voters. The top two vote-getters go on to the general election.

More Voters Walking Away From Two-Party System - A Case for Top Two

It's never been more clear that in order for new ideas, new alliances, new directions to emerge in our country, independents -- those who choose to go outside the box politically -- need to be included in our political process. Top two open primaries is one structural reform that is gaining support all over the country, much to the distress of the parties...

TOP TWO OPEN PRIMARIES

• More voters walking away from Democrat and Republican parties (AZ Central/Laurie Roberts' Columns & Blog) Meanwhile, with each set of new registration numbers, more and more Arizona voters are walking away from the two-party system. Yet the system remains, just as it has since statehood. When are we going to get around to dropping this antiquated system and going to a general and a runoff, where everybody votes on all the candidates regardless of party designation?
  
• Independent voters continue to rack up numbers (By David Rookhuyzen, Green Valley News) The state’s voting system could also be contributing to the high number of unaffiliated voters. Independents in Arizona can vote in any party’s primary election, except the Green Party, meaning there is no penalty for not having a party affiliation, Davis said. However, independents in Arizona are barred from voting in the presidential primary — or Presidential Preference Election — next year, which is reserved for members of the major parties.
  
• South Carolina Republicans Win Opportunity to Present Evidence Against Open Primary (Ballot Access News) On July 18, a U.S. District Court Judge in South Carolina issued an 8-page Opinion in Greenville County Republican Party v State, 6:10-cv-1407, the case in which the South Carolina Republican Party argues that the Constitution protects its ability to limit its primaries to party members.
• California State Appeals Court Sets Oral Argument in Case Against Two Aspects of “Top-Two” (Ballot Access News) This is one of the two cases that challenges two particular details of the Proposition 14 “top-two” system...

California: Top Two Open Primary + Independent Redistricting = Blow to Partisan System

CALIFORNIASteve Lambert: Redistricting's one-two punch (By Steve Lambert, Whittier Daily News) Shifts in population have forced a redrawing of lines throughout the state, and for the first time since 1992, those choices aren't being made by politicians, rather by a citizens panel that may just well be the most powerful Californians this side of the prison guards union.

California's Top Two Open Primary Challenged by Democrat-Tea Partier

OPEN PRIMARIES

TOP-TWO OPEN PRIMARY FACES LEGAL CHALLENGE FROM DEMOCRAT-TURNED-TEA PARTY ACTIVIST (by Damon Eris,  CAIVN) Having voted for himself as a write-in candidate in the special general election, Galacki seeks to challenge top-two both as a registered voter who was prohibited from running for the office as a write-in candidate and as a voter who cast a write-in ballot that was not counted.

California Top Two Open Primary Creates Opportunity

CALIFORNIA
Editorial: Who'll fill void left by Nielsen and LaMalfa? (Redding Record Searchlight) Last but far from least, no current incumbent lives in either the Assembly or the Senate district, though some might well move. That — along with the new open primaries next year — raises the prospect of wide-open legislative races in the districts that include Shasta County. And that means opportunity. Shasta County once routinely supplied the political leaders who represented the north state in Sacramento, but the area lost its mojo about a decade ago.