Russell Berman authored this article at The Atlantic blog. He writes about the Nebraska state legislature, which is non-partisan, and then concludes that because Nebraska has a successful legislature, therefore the top-two system should be adopted for Congress and all state legislatures.

Unfortunately, Berman seems to have only talked to proponents of top-two systems, not opponents. He writes that Congressman John Delaney has introduced a bill, HR 2655, to impose top-two systems for congressional elections in all states. But he does not say that in November 2014, Delaney received 94,704 votes; his Republican opponent Dan Bongino received 91,930 votes; and the Green Party nominee, George Gluck, received 3,762. Delaney has a selfish reason to keep minor party candidates off the ballot, given that his victory was such a narrow one.

Nebraska has had a non-partisan legislature starting with the 1936 election. Berman emphasizes the fact that the Nebraska legislature this year has passed some liberal policies, which he says would not have happened if Nebraska had partisan elections for legislature. But Nebraska also has many conservative policies in place. It is one of 20 states that has not expanded Medicaid. It is one of 25 states with a right-to-work law. It is one of the states that does not have a state law outlawing discrimination in employment for gay people.

Nebraska’s legislature is not as non-partisan as it may appear on the surface. The state publication, the Blue Book, publishes the party affiliation of each State Senator. Currently there are 36 Republicans, 12 Democrats, and one independent (Ernie Chambers) in the legislature. This year, when Democratic Senator Jeremy Nordquist resigned, the Republican Governor filled his seat with a Republican, Nicole Fox.

Berman blurs the distinction between non-partisan elections, and top-two elections used in California and Washington. Washington is not mentioned in the article, yet Washington has used the top-two system starting in 2008, and has one of the nation’s most dysfunctional legislatures. On August 13, the State Supreme Court fined the state $100,000 per day, because the legislature had not equalized education spending for poor school districts. The Washington state legislature still has not complied with the court order and the fine is continuing to mount. According to Political Scientist Boris Shor, the nation’s leading expert on polarization in state legislatures, Washington has the 4th most polarized legislature in the nation. The budget in both 2013 and 2015 did not pass until the Governor had called three special sessions of the legislature.

Berman does not mention that the League of Women Voters of two states, Washington and Arizona, has studied top-two systems, and in each case opposed the system. Berman does not mention that the California ACLU (both Northern and Southern) opposed the top-two measure when it was on the ballot in June 2010, because it sharply decreases voter choice in general elections. Berman does not mention that California general election turnout declined more between 2010 (when there were six parties on the ballot) and 2014 (when only Democrats and Republicans appeared on the ballot) than any other state.