The September 15, 2018 registration tally for North Carolina is: Democratic 38.02%; Republican 29.85%; Libertarian .52%; Green .01%; Constitution .01%; independent and miscellaneous 31.59%. Here is a link to the State Board of Elections page that shows the numbers. Green and Constitution registration is quite low because until a few months ago, it was not possible for voters to register into those parties and have those registrations tallied.

In February 2018, the percentages were: Democratic 38.65%; Republican 30.17%; Libertarian .50%; independent and miscellaneous 30.68%.

The State Board of Elections has no registration data earlier than 1966. Republicans had always been more numerous than registered independents (in the years for which data exists), until September 2017, when independents started outnumbering Republicans. Back in 1972, North Carolina had 541,916 Republicans but only 79,129 independents.

On September 14, four of the five Missouri U.S. Senate candidates who are on the ballot participated in a televised debate. See this story. The four candidates who participated were incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, Republican Josh Hawley, Green Party nominee Jo Crain, and independent Craig O’Dear. It appears the Libertarian Party nominee, Japheth Campbell, was invited but chose not to attend. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.

When California voted on whether to use a top-two primary in November 2004, and again in June 2010, political consultants were largely very much in favor. Now, however, a California Target Book poll of political consultants shows that more consultants dislike the system than like it. “Has the top-two system had a mostly positive or negative impact on the state?” was the question. “Negative” received 35.6%. “Positive” received 24.4%. “Both” received 37.8%. “Unsure” received 2.2%. See this Calmatters story about the poll. Thanks to Around the Capitol for the link.