On November 1, the Democratic Party sued Arizona over the law that controls the order of names on the ballot for partisan office. The Arizona law says the top names on the ballot are the nominees of the party that got the most votes in that county for Governor in the last election. Republicans have the top line in all but four counties. Here is the Complaint.

The case is Mecinas v Hobbs, 2:19cv-5547. It is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa, an Obama appointee. The Complaint says in a footnote that if the Democrats win the case, it does not follow logically that the relief should extend to any minor parties. The justification for that conclusion is that the U.S. Supreme Court said in Timmons v Twin Cities Area New Party that states have an interest in promoting the two-party system. That conclusion, written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, was supported by no evidence and no argument by either side in the case. Rehnquist did not define “two-party system”.

On November 1, the Maine Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit in federal court against the law that requires a new party to qualify by January of the election year. The lawsuit also challenges the state policy of erasing all of a party’s registered members when the party goes off the ballot. The case number is not yet assigned, but the case is Baines v Dunlap.

In 2016, when the deadline for a new party to qualify was in December of the year before the election, a U.S. District Court enjoined that deadline. In response, the legislature then moved the deadline only one month. New parties qualify by persuading at least 5,000 voters to register into the party.

New Statesman has now published the second installment of political scientist Corbin Duncan’s analysis of primaries. This episode presents evidence that political parties choose better nominees in the absence of primaries. He discusses the United States and also the United Kingdom.

Here is a link to Duncan’s article from last week.