On January 5, 2017, California Assemblyman Kevin Mullin introduced AB 84, to move the primary (for all office) in presidential years from June to early March. On March 21, he amended the bill so that it is now more specific. The bill now meets the requirements to have a hearing in the Assembly Elections Committee, whereas previously it did not.

This is a very important bill for the future of top-two elections in California. If it is signed into law, there would be no means for a candidate to enter a congressional, legislative, or state executive position except to file in the odd year before the election year. There is case law that says the First Amendment protects the ability of candidates to enter a race during the election year itself, because otherwise the status quo is cemented too deeply into the election system.

In 2000, the U.S. State Department filed a human rights complaint against Azerbaijan, over its new election law that said a party could not enter the election unless it had been in existence for at least six months before the election. Under federal law, since 1872, congressional elections are in November of even-numbered years, and if AB 84 is in place and no other law is amended, congressional candidates would need to file a year before the election.

This Salon story seems to indicate that backers of a California initiative to split the state into two states have enough funds to get their idea on the 2018 ballot.

The National Conference of State Legislatures publishes an on-line publication about election law, The Canvass, every week. Here is a lengthy story in Ranked Choice Voting in The Canvass of March 28.