California elects an Insurance Commissioner as a statewide partisan race on June 5, 2018. There are four candidates on the ballot, two Democrats, one independent, and one member of the Peace & Freedom Party. Here is an Associated Press story about the race. Although the story is very long, it does not mention Nathalie Hrizi, the Peace & Freedom candidate.

The story focuses on the fact that the winner will be the “first” of his type to hold the job, if elected. One of the Democrats is a Muslim; the other is a gay Hispanic. The independent, Steve Poizner, would be the first independent elected to statewide in California. But if Hrizi were elected, she would be California’s first woman Insurance Commissioner.

The story is an example of the extreme reluctance of the mainstream California media to mention any minor party candidates. Because they are perceived as having no chance to place first or second in June, they are not covered at all. There have been quite a few televised debates for California statewide candidates this season, but no minor party candidate has been invited into any televised debate.

The state trial court that is hearing the Montana Democratic Party challenge to the Green Party petition will hold a third trial day on May 17, Thursday.

Last year, some Georgia voters filed a federal lawsuit against Georgia’s Secretary of State, alleging that the state’s vote-counting machines, which have no paper audit trail, are inherenty unreliable. Recently the plaintiffs received the assistance of some of the nation’s most prominent law firms. See this story.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg will probably soon allow a trial, in which the machines will be brought into court and experts on both sides will discuss how they work and how they could perhaps provide a dishonest count. The case is Curling v Kemp, n.d., 1:17cv-2989. Garland Favorito, a leader of the Constitution Party, is one of the plaintiffs.