Pennsylvania has closed primaries.  Senate Bill 357 would let independent voters choose which primary to vote in.  According to this newspaper story, the bill has substantial support.  So far it has not moved, and is in the Senate State Government Committee.

The newspaper story says the bill would set up an “open primary”, but that is not correct.  “Open primary” has been defined in political science textbooks for over a century, and in U.S. Supreme Court opinions since 1972, as a system in which all voters may choose any party’s primary.  Most southern states are open primary states.  Typically, open primary states have a voter registration application that does not ask the applicant to choose a party, because there is no need for that information in an open primary system.

Here is the text of SB 357.

New York Senate Bill 2300 has passed both houses of the legislature.  However, the versions of the bill are not the same in each house, so the bill still must pass the State Senate again.  It removes party emblems, also known as party logos, from general election ballots.

Removing the emblems will make it possible for the ballot to be structured in clearer format.

Assuming the bill becomes law, the only states that will continue to print party logos on ballots will be Alabama, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.  The last states to remove logos were Michigan, Missouri, Utah and West Virginia.

Great Britain votes on Thursday, May 23, for its members of the European Parliament.  See this Independent article, giving poll results.  They show the Brexit Party has 34%, Labour 21%, Liberal Democratic 12%, Conservative 11%, Green 8%.

This election is conducted using proportional representation, with twelve districts.