On March 29, Nebraska LB 34 passed the State Senate unanimously. Nebraska requires all bills to go through several floor votes, so the bill isn’t entirely through the legislative process yet. But the fact that it passed unanimously certainly indicates that it won’t have any trouble on final passage. Current law says a party remains on the ballot if it polls 5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. The bill keeps that provision, but says it can also stay on the ballot if it has at least 10,000 registrants.

The only ballot-qualified parties in Nebraska now are the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian Parties. The Libertarian Party has over 11,000 registrants. The effect of the bill will be to keep the Libertarian Party on the ballot even if chooses not to run any nominees for statewide office in the future, as long as its registration stays high. The bill’s author, Senator Laura Ebke, is a registered Libertarian.

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.