Open Primaries is an organization based in New York city that is dedicated to depriving political parties of their core function, the right to nominate candidates. Open Primaries supports top-two and top-four initiatives, in which candidates qualify for the general election ballot based on their popularity in a preceding primary, rather than by winning the nomination of a party.

On November 29, 2020, Open Primaries released a 60-page report, titled “The Next Great Migration, the Rise of Independent Voters.” The thesis of the report is “Independent voters are the fastest growing segment of the electorate.” It uses registration data to make this point. However, the report’s registration data for each state is out-of-date. In no case does the report have any data more recent than May 2020.

Between February 2020 and October 2020, the fastest growing segment of the electorate was the Libertarian Party, if one uses percentages to measure growth. Libertarian registration went up 43,027 voters between February and October, for a 7.06% rise. The Republican Party gained 1,757,462 voters during the same period, growth of 5.28%. The Democratic Party gained 1,390,132 voters, up 3.04%. Independents only grew by 166,577, which was only up .50%.

It is certainly true that independent voters greatly increased their share of the registration between 2005 and 2020. The Report emphasizes how things have changed since 2005. The Report lists the states that now ask about party choice on voter registration forms, but it does does not include Arkansas on that list. Arkansas does ask about party registration. If the Report had recognized Arkansas as a state with party registration, that would have bolstered the Report’s thesis, because a large majority of Arkansas voters are registered independents.

Open Primaries was founded by leaders of the New Alliance Party, which dissolved itself in 1994 and helped create the Patriot Party. After the Reform Party was founded in September 1995, the Patriot Party entered the Reform Party. Its activists supported Pat Buchanan for the Reform Party nomination in 2000. After the 2000 election, they left the Reform Party and created the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, and then they formed Open Primaries.

The Alaskan Independence Party is one of the nation’s oldest one-state parties. It first appeared on Alaska ballots in 1974. Until 2020, it had seemed dormant. It had no nominees in 2018, only one in 2016, and none on the ballot in 2014 and 2012.

But in 2020, it polled its highest percentage ever for U.S. Senate (4.73%, for John Wayne Howe), and it had three legislative candidates on the ballot, the most since 2004. Its nominee for State Senate, district P on the Kenai Peninsula, polled 35.06% in a two-person race against a Republican.

Here is the party’s website, showing that it still believes in a new relationship between Alaska and the remainder of the United States.

On Friday, November 27, President Trump lost his election case in the Third Circuit. He had alleged that different Pennsylvania counties had used different procedures for accepting ballots, and that therefore the entire popular vote should be ruled invalid. Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v Secretary Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 20-3371. This is the first election-counting decision from 2020 from any U.S. Court of Appeals.

The decision is by Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee. It is also signed by two George Bush, Jr. appointees, D. Brooks Smith and Michael Chagares. The decision says that just because different counties use somewhat different procedures concerning ballot acceptance, that in itself does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. The decision also says, “The Campaign never alleges that any ballot was fraudulent or cast by any illegal voter.” Here is the decision. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.