On March 22, the California Secretary of State released a registration tally as of February 10, 2017. This is the only report that California will issue until early in 2018. In raw numbers, the two major parties lost members, but all the ballot-qualified minor parties gained members.

In percentage terms, the Democratic, Republican and Green Parties were slightly lower, but the Libertarian, Peace & Freedom, and American Independent Parties gained. The old percentages, from the October 24, 2016 tally, were: Democratic 44.92%; Republican 26.01%; American Independent 2.61%; Libertarian .72%; Green .4876%; Peace & Freedom .3897%; independent and unqualified parties 24.86%.

The new percentages are: Democratic 44.77%; Republican 25.87%; American Independent 2.63%; Libertarian .73%; Green .4874%; Peace & Freedom .3912%; independent and unqualified parties 25.13%. If these trends continue, in the next report there will be more people registered as independent or in unqualified parties than there will be Republicans.

On March 21, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican, vetoed Initiative Petition Number One, which would provide that adult citizens known to exist in the state would automatically be registered to vote, unless they opt out. The proposal still will appear on the November 2018 ballot as an initiative. Here is the language of the proposal.

This news story about the possibility that Joe Piscopo may run as an independent for New Jersey Governor this year also analyzes past independent candidates in New Jersey, and explains why they never get as much as 10% of the vote.