On May 2026, as previously reported, John Morgan, a wealthy attorney in Orlando, Florida, announced his plans to create a new party. He also said he would award $100,000 to the individual who suggested the best new party name.
The contest closed on June 14, but the winning entry still has not been announced. Morgan had earlier said the announcement would come on June 17. Here is the website for the contest, giving the rules.
On June 23, California filed this brief in Peace & Freedom Party v Weber, n.d., 3:24cv-8308. This is the California minor party lawsuit against the top-two system.
The law is discriminatory because some candidates in the primary are permitted to list their party on the ballot, but other candidates are not. In defense, the state says, “The State’s interests in permitting candidates to identify on the ballots only political parties that have qualified to participate in an election include ensuring that candidates aooear on the ballot in an orderly manner, preventing misrepresentation, avoiding electoral confusion and deception, preserving the simplicity of the ballots, and assuring the efficiency, integrity, and fairness of the ballots.”
In this month’s primary, candidates who are registered in the American Solidarity, Constitution, Forward, Socialist Workers, and Working Class Parties all ran for partisan office. It is mind-boggling that the state can argue that if these candidates had their party of membership printed on the ballot, that would “cause confusion.”
Washington state, the other top-two state, lets candidates in partisan elections choose any label they wish, as long as it is not too long and is not obscene.
This June 22 press release by the Iowa Libertarian Party says the party will sue to regain its ballot position for Governor and U.S. House in the next few days.
On June 22, Daniel J. Sullivan sued the Alaska Division of Elections to obtain a place on the August 18 primary ballot. He wants to run for U.S. Senator, but the Division of Elections blocked him because the Department felt he lacks “good faith”. Sullivan v Elections Division, Superior Court, Anchorage 3rd district, 3AN-26-07485 CI. The lawsuit depends on the argument that states cannot add to the qualifications to run for Congress.
This Los Angeles Times article says that Abel Maldonado, one of the leading forces for California’s top-two system back in 2009, now favors returning to a traditional system in which parties have nominees. But he favors a provision that says independent voters can vote in any party’s primary.
In 2009, the California legislature put the top-two measure on the ballot because Maldonado, then a State Senator, said he would vote for the budget if the legislature passed a bill to put top-two on the ballot. He had tremendous power at the time, because California was suffering a two-month old delay in passing the budget. The Constitution at that time required a two-thirds vote in each house, and Republican legislators wouldn’t vote for the budget, and they had just enough votes to stop it. When Maldonado agreed to vote for the budget, the budget passed.
