On March 16, the Minnesota Green, Independence, and Libertarian Parties jointly sent letters to the Governor and Secretary of State, asking that petitioning requirements for the general election be suspended or repealed. There are bills pending in the legislature that would eliminate such petitions for parties that had polled 1% for any statewide office in the last election anyway. Thanks to John Andrews for this news.
On May 16, an Ohio state trial court judge refused to delay the Ohio primary from May 17 to June. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On March 16, Kentucky state officials moved the primary for president and all other office from May 19 to June 23. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
New York state officials are considering whether to cancel the April 28 presidential primary, and instead holding it in late June, when the state holds primaries for other office. See this story.
Other states that are scheduled to hold presidential primaries on April 28 are Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
California held its top-two primary on March 3. For the first time since top-two started in California, in 2011, an incumbent appears to have been defeated for re-election in the primary. Assemblymember Typer Diep of the 72nd district (in Orange County) placed third, although not all votes have been counted yet.
Diep was known for being the California Republican legislator who was most likely to behave in a non-partisan manner and to get along with Democratic legislators. This article at Cal Matters, by Ben Christopher, says the top-two system was promoted as a way to elect more moderate legislators, but in this case and generally it hasn’t worked as its supporters expected.
