On the evening of October 9, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed SB 696, the bill to make it illegal for a party to have “independent” or “independence” as part of its name. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for this news. See this Los Angeles Times news story. The Governor said the bill likely violates the First Amendment.

The story says that State Senator Tom Umberg, the bill’s author, says he will re-introduce the same bill next year.
UPDATE: here is the Veto Message. Thanks to Jim Riley for that link.

On October 8, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed 17 bills relating to election law. See his press release.

However, the press release has no information about SB 212, which lets non-charter cities and counties use ranked choice voting for their own officers. Currently only charter cities and counties may do that.

The press release has no information about AB 681, which lets voters easily change their party as late as primary election day and says that all voters must be sent a notice before any primary telling them how they are registered. However, the Governor did sign SB 72, which lets voters change their registration on primary day.

The press release has no information about SB 696, which forces the American Independent Party to change its name by October 29, or else be removed from the ballot and lose all its registrants.

On October 7, the Democratic and Republican candidates for Kentucky Secretary of State spoke and were asked their opinion about a semi-closed primary. The Republican nominee, Michael Adams, said he favors Kentucky’s closed primary, but also he favors letting each party decide that for itself. The Democratic nominee, Heather French Henry, said the issue needs research. See this story.

Henry and Adams are the only candidates for Secretary of State of Kentucky this year. Although the Libertarian Party is on the ballot and has three statewide nominees, it doesn’t have a candidate for Secretary of State. The election is November 5, 2019. Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi are the only states with gubernatorial elections this year.