The Maine Green Party (whose name is the Green Independent Party) has voted to allow independent voters to vote in its primaries, and they need not join the Green Party. See this story. The two major parties in Maine also let independent voters vote in their primaries, but only if they join those parties at the polls on primary election day.

Now that the party has taken this step, it will be in a strong position to argue that independent voters should also be able to sign petitions to get members of the Green Party on the party’s primary ballot. Maine and Massachusetts have the most draconian requirements for members of small qualified parties to get on their own party’s primary ballot. At least Massachusetts lets independents sign such petitions; Maine does not. The Maine Green Party has never been able to nominate any candidates for either house of Congress since it has been a ballot-qualified party, nor has it been able to nominate anyone for Governor in the last two gubernatorial election years.

Frontloading HQ has this interesting blog post about the failure, so far, of the North Carolina House to vote on HB 373. This is the bill that moves the North Carolina presidential primary from February to March. If no such change is made, national party rules will penalize North Carolina by cutting back most of its delegates to the national convention.

The Institute of Governmental Studies has an all-day symposium on Wednesday, September 2, at 109 Moses Hall on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Here is the schedule. Note especially the 2 p.m. panel on third political parties in the 2015 election. Unfortunately this free event is already filled up, but it is possible to be wait-listed. One of the speakers is Thomas Mann from the Brookings Institution.