Steve Poizner, California’s former Insurance Commissioner and a 2018 independent candidate for his old job, spoke in Denver on August 19. The venue was the national meeting of Unite America, which promotes the election of independent candidates. During Poizner’s talk, he displayed a surprising ignorance of California election law and the experience of independent candidates in California in the past.

He said that before the top-two measure took effect in 2011, it was not possible for an independent to run for office in California. That statement comes in minute five. He also said that he is the first independent candidate in California history to get on the general election ballot. That is in minute four. Finally, he said that when he was elected as a Republican in 2006, California had closed primaries.

Actually, California voters elected independent candidates to the legislature in 1986, 1990, 1992, and 1994. Three of those four wins were by Quentin Kopp, who is still living in San Francisco and still very active in politics. It is stunning that Poizner seems unaware of Kopp.

California had a semi-closed primary, not a closed primary, in 2006. For proof, see this page on the Secretary of State’s web page, which shows that in 2006, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party told the Secretary of State that independents could vote in their primaries that year.

Candidates who used the independent procedure in California appeared on the ballot for Governor in 1918 and 1978; for U.S. Senate in 1976; and for president in 1976, 1980, 1988, and 1992.

One of the worst aspects of the California top-two law is that it removed write-in space from the general election ballot, but only for Congress and partisan state office, the offices elected under the top-two system. This Los Angeles Times story explains why the legislature (which passed the top-two law) destroyed write-ins.

The reason the write-in issue is getting attention now is because Congressman Duncan Hunter, the Republican incumbent in the 50th district, has been indicted. He is one of two candidates on the November ballot; the other is a Democrat. The article is mistaken when it says no one has challenged the write-in ban. At least two lawsuits did so, but they both lost. Thanks to John Fund for the link.

On August 23, U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin A. Drain ruled that Michigan must use a straight-ticket device in the November 2018 election. Earlier he had ruled that the 2016 law abolishing the device is void. The state is appealing, and while the appeal is pending, the state wanted to avoid using the device.

The state will probably now ask the Sixth Circuit for a stay.