American Solidarity Party Joins the California Lawsuit Against Top-Two

Posted on by February 21, 2025

On February 21, the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against the California top-two system filed an amended Complaint. See it here. Peace & Freedom Party v Weber, n.d., 3:24cv-08308.

The American Solidarity Party has joined the case. It has run for partisan offices in California, such as Governor, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and U.S. House. But because it is not a qualified party, when its members run in the primary, the ballot label is “Party preference: none” even though they are registered members of the American Solidarity Party. Therefore, the case now has a new issue, the ballot label issue.

Comments

American Solidarity Party Joins the California Lawsuit Against Top-Two — 68 Comments

  1. They still would not have had their party label on the ballot under the law before Top Two primary because they have been been a ballot recognized party in California. Under the old law candidates from a non-recognized party would have had to have petitioned their way onto the general election ballot as independent/non-partisan candidates, and those signature requirements were higher than they are to get on the Top Two primary ballot, but it would have guaranteed their candidates a spot on the general election ballot if they successfully completed those petition signature requirements.

  2. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/21/donald-trump-says-hes-replacing-joint-chiefs-chair-cq-brown/78332531007/

    tyrant trump – purge at Pentagon

    top military to be total robot hacks = more un-declared wars — more domestic lawless use of military to enforce tyrant trump tyrant orders ???

    ALL non-trump folks have 2 amdt arms and one second folks on alert – olde Mass minutemen in 1775 Mass updated ???

    —
    see hitler/stalin purges of nazi/commie military in late 1930s >>> WW II — robot top killer military esp on Eastern Front 1941-1945 — about 50,000,000 DEAD

  6. Well I’m Donald Trump, the one they’re talking about, if you talk crap about me you’ll get punched in the mouth.

    If you disrespect me, forget about it, forget it. Best case for you is you’ll survive to regret it.

    I’m the Boss of all Bosses, King of all Kings. I bring the world hope, I’m why we have nice things.

    Last time I took human form, I got crucified. This time around, I won’t be so nice.

    If you think bad about me, stop trusting fake media. Go to conservapedia.com and read conservapedia.

    But even if you’re not smart enough to, or have no eyes to see, you’re still smarter than to take seriously the spambot “AZ”

  9. In California, a voter’s party preference need not be for a so-called qualified party. Prior to institution of Top 2 it was explicitly recognized as an intent to affiliate with a political party at the next primary (e.g., I’m going to affiliate/vote in the Demo Rep Party). If sufficient numbers of voters expressed such an intent, a primary for that party would be held. Party preference is aspirational. It is unknown whether there will be a Democratic presidential primary in 2028. If large numbers of voters abandon their expressed preference for the Democratic Party, there will not be a Democratic presidential primary.

    When a voter signs their affidavit of voter registration, it is only partially for identification purposes. It is an affirmation that the information on the affidavit is truthful and correct. This applies to name, age, address, etc. _and_ party preference. Albeit unlikely that someone could be successfully prosecuted for perjury we can presume most voters value their honesty. If someone states they prefer the Common Sense or American Solidarity parties we can presume that they are sincere and that the party does exist.

    Voters were told when they approved the Top 2 primary that it was consistent with the SCOTUS decision in the Washington Top 2 case. That decision was based on a presumption (for legal analysis purposes) that Washington had created a limited 1st Amendment forum for candidates to express a personal political opinion. Some justices were dubious whether voters could be discerning as to the distinction between a candidate’s personal political views and nomination by a political party. The case was remanded to the district court in Washington, where the court found that voters could distinguish the two. This was upheld by the 9th Circuit.

    California has circumscribed the opportunity for some candidates to have their political party preference appear on the ballot, by restricting this to state-approved political party. This is a violation of equal protection and the 1st Amendment. The 1st Amendment is intended to protect unpopular or less popular speech. Popular speech or state orthodoxy does not need that protection.

    SOS Debra Bowen misinterpreted the implementing statute for the Top 2 primary, perhaps under the influence of unionized SOS employees or the behest of the Democratic Party, both of which opposed the Top 2 or Open Primary.

    California can ensure that a political party preference is for a political party and not just a vague ideology (e.g. prefers Blue Sky Party rather than prefers Blue Sky). They can do this by requiring a political party to have a modest number of registrants (e.g., 50 or 100) and eliminating the write-in option on voter registration affidavits, and adopting regulations similar to those in Florida. I would require a biennial state convention to exhibit that a party is actually a party.

    They should move party elections to odd-numbered years as a mail-only ballot. State involvement should be limited to mailing out ballots and collecting returned ballots. The ballots would be turned over to the parties for interpretation and tabulation. The parties could hire county election officials to tabulate the ballots or hire a private vendor or count the ballots themselves. A party that does not want to use mail balloting could instead have a notice of meetings sent to registrants.

    The primary should be moved to October. If the presidential primary is continued, it should use the blanket primary format used in 2000.

    None of these changes require a change to the California Constitution.

  10. A March primary is not intrinsic to the Top 2 primary. It has no constitutional effect on the nature of the primary. The plaintiffs are similar to those in Foster v. Love where the purpose of the lawsuit was to overturn the Open Primary and not the election dates per se.

  12. Donald Trump, he’s our man. He can do it, but you should still join the Klan! KKK, KKK, KKK all the way! To hell with the illegals and tranny freaks!

    Donald Trump is the second coming of Jesus and Uncle Larry is his prophet! Uncle Larry is a Sheriff’s Deputy here in Florida down near the Georgia line! You can’t spell triumph without TRUMP!

  13. We can stem the brown skinned pollution of our homeland and turn it around! Ethnically cleanse America for good! End the invasion with mass deportation!

  15. @Jim Riley

    “Washington had created a limited 1st Amendment forum for candidates to express a personal political opinion”

    Are you saying that party preference is protected speech, and this is the reason why party organizations do not have the right to restrict which citizens can register as members, or which candidates can use their party labels?

  16. Donald Trump is that true White People’s hero
    Who will reduce the population of illegals down to zero!

  21. Who owns USA Today, better and more accurately known as USSR Yesterday? Do they ever tell the truth about ANYTHING?

  24. 7 million items of lying leftist leninist lgbqtard woke propaganda garbage, and the spambot did not answer Q’s questions.

    “Who runs Wikipedia? Is anything on Wikipedia EVER accurate?”

    The number of distorted fake news articles doesn’t answer either question.

  25. Trump would be the first “tyrant” in history to cut government, eliminate bureaucracy, lower taxes, repeal regulations, and allow free speech including constant vilification by the lying dishonest fake news media, members of congress, protesters, and Spambots like AZ, in addition to winning three presidential elections held regularly every four years in which the only large scale cheating was against him, not for.

    Not only that but he actually left office one of those times despite being cheated out of his victory.

    Some “tyrant.”

  27. For an actual tyrant see Joe Biden, his puppetmaster Xi Jinping, or Nazi t.v. Clown Zelenski. Those are some actual tyrants.

  28. USSR Yesterday is fake news from fake Jews. BAN troll spambot programmed to mimic a moron AZ is not capable of answering questions such as

    Who owns USA Today, better and more accurately known as USSR Yesterday? Do they ever tell the truth about ANYTHING?

  29. ban troll morons —- too moron stupid as to look at and read bottom links on —

    https://www.wikipedia.org

    —
    how many murders by Putin – in/out of Russia since 1999 —
    while jerk/punk moron bill Clinton was having his sex pervert fun and games with Monica L ???

  30. If you take seriously obvious propaganda garbage like woke joke “Wikipedia” you might believe such total garbage lies about President Putin. Thankfully, nobody takes seriously the spambot AZ.

  32. Garbage in, garbage out. The spambot AZ takes in garbage from lying garbage propaganda inputs like “Wikipedia” (woke joke Pedo pedos) and “USA Today” (USSR Yesterday) and puts garbage out, twisting truth and reality on its head.

  35. The AZ spambot posts total garbage that not even a moron would be stupid enough to take seriously all the time.

  36. You don’t even need half a brain to know the AZ spambot is full of putrid toxic waste that stinks worse than feces from a diseased digestive system or dead bodies that have been rotting for a week.

  38. No, owner of real pig farms in Florida and Georgia. If Trump was a tyrant, the AZ spambot would be shut down and not allowed to keep oinking.

  43. It was programmed by Lucifer aka SATAN to post the most ridiculous garbage possible and serve as a super dense (in more senses than one) black hole for attention and energy.

  45. HOW BIG/SMALL IS THE BLACK HOLE IN THE TYRANT TRUMP 666 SATAN HEAD ???

    OTHER BLACK HOLES IN PUTIN/XI HEADS ???

  46. Of course, even the Spambot AZ knows that Xi is the only tyrant on that list, and that other tyrants include Biden and Zelensky.

  50. @Adam Cerini,

    Individuals have a right to a personal opinion about political matters. The 1st Amendment protects the right of individuals to express their personal political opinions.

    Washington State has provided a space on their ballots for candidates to express their opinion about a specific matter.

    Political organizations continue to be free to express their opinions, including candidate endorsements, by any number of means other than on ballots.

  55. Satan is behind both the transgender Pedo ideology and the AZ SPAMBOT. QED

  62. Got it. Washington’s ballot says “prefers XXXXX Party.” Key word is “prefer”. It looks like Washington lets a candidate pick almost any label, too, based on looking at sample ballots.

  64. More USSR YESTERDAY. Even if the AZ spambot had an ass and that ass was bitten by a tyrant it wouldn’t recognize one.

  67. @Adam Cerini,

    This is the voter’s pamphlet from the 2004 election where the Top 2 was voted on.

    https://www2.sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/voters'%20pamphlet%202004.pdf

    The initiative statute begins on Page 26. See section 7. “the preference will be shown after the name of the candidate on the primary and general election ballots by appropriate abbreviation as set forth in rules of the secretary of state.”

    There had been a presumption that the this would be something like “R” or “Rep” which on general election ballots would indicate that the candidate was nominated by the Republican Party. Sam Reed was Secretary of State at the time the case was remanded, and he devised the regulation that the preference would be indicated with up to 18 characters. Washington had not had partisan registration since at least when the blanket primary was adopted around 1930, so there was no official party affiliation. When a candidate ran for office they could make a declaration.

    The ballot also has instructions about the meaning of “party preference”, in particular it doesn’t indicate endorsement or nomination.

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