At the March 3, 2020 primary, California’s 38th Assembly District had no incumbent running. Five Democrats and two Republicans filed. The two Republicans placed first and second, even though in the 2018 election, Democrats had won the seat.

The seat is in northern Los Angeles County.

The top-two system began in California in 2011. This is only the second time Democrats have been left without a candidate in the general election, in a district that the Democratic Party had won in the previous election. The first instance was in 2012, in the 31st U.S. House district.

Republicans suffered from this type of anomaly in 2018 in the 76th Assembly distrrict.

On March 12, the last day of the session, the Utah legislature passed HB 70, the bill to end the straight-ticket device.

Scotusblog has named the cert petition in Schmitt v LaRose as a “petition of the day.” That means Scotusblog thinks that case has a fair chance of being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Schmitt v LaRose is an Ohio case, in which some proponents of a local initiative relating to marijuana gathered enough valid signatures, but the county election board kept off the ballot anyway because the board felt if the initiative passed, it would be invalid as a matter of policy. The lower courts upheld the action of the board of elections, and minimized First Amendment protection for the content of initiatives.