On February 8, the Utah House defeated HB 68 by 34-37. It would have given parties the right to exclude anyone from running in their primaries who did not show substantial support at a party meeting. In other words, it would have let parties block candidates from getting on that party’s primary ballot by petition.

The Daily Republic, daily newspaper for Fairfield, California, has this excellent story about Steve Poizner’s run for California Insurance Commissioner as an independent candidate this year. This is the first general circulation newspaper article to discuss how independent candidates are injured by the California law that won’t permit independent candidates for Congress or state office to use the ballot label “independent.” Instead, as the story says, they must be on the ballot as “Party Preference: None.”

The story quotes Dan Schnur, who ran as an independent for Secretary of State of California in 2014, saying that major party legislators are never going to change the law to permit the label “independent.” Schnur is also quoted as saying “It takes an unusually well-informed voter to even know what NPP means.” The reporter himself refers to NPP as a “deadly ballot designation.”