A North Dakota initiative petition has been submitted. It would establish a top-four system. The general election would include ranked choice voting, but the primary would not. See this story.

There would be no party nominees if this initiative passed and took effect (except for President), but the initiative backers did not come up with any new method to define “political party”. Current law says a party remains on the ballot if it polls 5% for Governor, President, Secretary of State, or Attorney General. But under this initiative, there would be no party showing for any of those offices except President.

North Dakota doesn’t have party registration, and already has an open primary. Any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot.

On March 6, the Montana Secretary of State announced that the 2020 Green Party petition has enough valid signatures. The requirement is 5,000, and the party petition had 11,000 signatures. This is the first petition success for the Green Party (relative to getting on the 2020 ballot) since the November 2018 election.

Meanwhile, the party is still in U.S. District Court over the unequal distribution requirement for that type of petition. The law requires signatures from at least one-third of the state house districts. But even though house districts are presumed to have equal populations, the law requires that in some districts as many as 150 valid signatures are needed, while in others the requirement can be as low as 55 signatures. Such a law clearly violates the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Moore v Ogilvie, an Illinois decision that said when distribution requirements exist for statewide petitions, all the voters in each district must be treated equally. The Montana law gives more power to voters in some house districts than in others.

The lawsuit is Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 6:18cv-87.

Law Professor Derek Muller has filed this amicus in Chiafalo v State of Washington, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court should not render a decision on whether presidential electors have freedom to vote for any qualified candidate. He says that Congress should settle such disputes. He points out that Micheal Baca, the plaintiff from Colorado who sued after the Secretary of State of Colorado “fired” him, should have asked Congress to recognize him as an elector. Because Baca failed to do so, Professor Muller advocates that Baca lacks standing.

Muller also says that the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong to hear Bush v Gore in 2000. In that case, he argues, the U.S. Supreme Court intruded on the authority of Congress. By contrast, in the disputed election of 1876, Congress created a way to resolve the dispute.