Alaska Representative Ivy Spohnholz has agreed to introduce a bill to ease the definition of “political party.” Currently it is a group that has registration membership equal to 3% of the last vote cast, or a group that polled 3% of the vote for the top non-presidential office at the last election.

As a registration requirement, Alaska has the nation’s most severe registration test, unless one counts the Pennsylvania law that puts a party on the ballot if it has 15% of the statewide registration.

The only qualified parties in Alaska now are the Republican, Democratic, and Alaskan Independence Party. The Alaskan Independence Party had no nominees for any office in 2018, yet it easily remains on the ballot because it has such high registration.

A few news stories describe the hearing in the Washington State Supreme Court yesterday on whether presidential electors have freedom to vote for any qualified person, but the stories say nothing about how the justices reacted to the arguments. Here is one story.

The Washington State Supreme Court will hear In the matter of Guerra, 95347-3, at 9 a.m., Tuesday, January 22. Here is an article about the case, which challenges the Washington state law that fines presidential electors who vote for someone in the electoral college who did not get the most popular votes in the state.