Pennsylvania holds statewide partisan elections for judicial offices on November 7, 2017.  Voters will be asked to vote for four candidates for Superior Court, which is a statewide office.  The Green Party petitioned for Jules Mermelstein for that office, and submitted 4,300 signatures.  The requirement for that office for general election petitions is 2,500.  No one challenged Mermelstein’s petition, so he will be on the ballot.  The only other candidates are four Democrats and four Republicans.

The petition requirement for this office is lower than it has in the past, as a result of the U.S. District Court decision last year in Constitution Party v Cortes.  The new requirements for statewide general election petitions, which were negotiated but not yet approved by the legislature, are 5,000 for the more important offices, and 2,500 for less important offices.

Although the Green Party is not ballot-qualified in Utah, it has nominated Brendan Phillips for the special U.S. House election in the Third District.  His write-ins will be tallied.

On August 11, Thomas E. Palzer and his organization Foundation to Stop Top Two filed a proposed constitutional initiative with the California Attorney General.  Here is the text.  It would return California to the system used between 2001 and 2010.  Parties would again have their own nominees and their own primary ballots.  Each party would decide for itself whether to let independent voters vote in its primaries.

When California had this system 2001-2010, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party always let independent voters vote in their congressional and state office primaries.  The press frequently did not understand that.  There was confusion because in 2008 the California Republican Party did not allow independents to vote in its presidential primary, but it did allow independents to vote in the Republican primary for congress and partisan state office.

The California top-two system, on the ballot in June 2010, was not an initiative.  The California legislature voted to put it on the ballot.

The Foundation to Stop Top Two is seeking contributions to help pay for the petition drive, which can’t start until the Attorney General processes the submission.  Probably the initiative will be ready to start circulating in late October or early November.

Thomas Palzer is a Republican Party activist, but his group is non-partisan.  It can be reached at PO Box 2413 Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91729, tompalzer1@gmail.com.  The group is working to set up organizations in each county.  See stoptop2.com.