On September 13, the California legislature passed AB 681. It lets voters change their party affiliation as late as primary day, without filling out a new voter registration form. It lets voters change their party by telephone, fax, or e-mail, as well as in person at the polls.

It also provides that all voters will be sent a piece of postal mail several months before a primary, telling them what their party affiliation is. In the case of independent voters, two such notices will be sent.

Assuming Governor Newsom signs AB 681, this bill will resolve the problems that were present in the last presidential primary, when some voters did not know they were registered in the American Independent Party, and were disappointed not to be able to request the ballot of some other party.

On September 13, Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky filed this amicus brief in the California Supreme Court in Patterson v Padilla, the lawsuit over whether the California Constitution prohibits keeping candidates off the presidential primary ballot if they don’t reveal their tax returns.

The main thrust of the amicus is that the California legislature can do almost anything it wants when it writes election laws. The brief does not grapple with the meaning of the word “recognized”. The California Constitution says all “recognized” candidates will be put on a presidential primary ballot (if they are seeking the nomination of a political party that is ballot-qualified). Chemerinsky implies that the legislature has the power to define the word “recognized”.

The amicus repeats the misinformation that all presidential candidates since Nixon have revealed their tax returns, ignoring the point in yesterday’s De La Fuente brief in federal court that minor party presidential candidates have almost never done that.