On June 23, California filed this brief in Peace & Freedom Party v Weber, n.d., 3:24cv-8308. This is the California minor party lawsuit against the top-two system.

The law is discriminatory because some candidates in the primary are permitted to list their party on the ballot, but other candidates are not. In defense, the state says, “The State’s interests in permitting candidates to identify on the ballots only political parties that have qualified to participate in an election include ensuring that candidates aooear on the ballot in an orderly manner, preventing misrepresentation, avoiding electoral confusion and deception, preserving the simplicity of the ballots, and assuring the efficiency, integrity, and fairness of the ballots.”

In this month’s primary, candidates who are registered in the American Solidarity, Constitution, Forward, Socialist Workers, and Working Class Parties all ran for partisan office. It is mind-boggling that the state can argue that if these candidates had their party of membership printed on the ballot, that would “cause confusion.”

Washington state, the other top-two state, lets candidates in partisan elections choose any label they wish, as long as it is not too long and is not obscene.