On September 13, both sides in the lawsuit Soltysik v Padilla, 16-55758, now pending in the Ninth Circuit, agreed to mediate the case. The mediation conference is set for September 27. The issue is whether members of unqualified parties may have their party printed on the ballot when they run for Congress or partisan state office. The plaintiffs are registered “Socialist” but under current law, their ballot label is “party preference: none.”

By contrast, Washington, the only other state that uses a top-two system, lets any candidate choose any partisan label if it is 15 characters or less and is not obscene. This year, in the California primary, two candidates were on the ballot for U.S. Senate who were registered members of unqualified parties. Eleanor Garcia is registered “Socialist Workers” and Don Grundmann is registered “Constitution.”

On the evening of September 18, Sixty Minutes interviewed Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. Here is the transcript. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.

South Carolina permits two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. Voters can choose which party line to support. The Green Party has nominated four individuals for Congress who are also Democratic nominees. They are Thomas Dixon for U.S. Senate; Dimitri Cherny for U.S. House district one; Arik Bjorn for U.S. House district two; and Mal Hyman for U.S. House district seven.

The Green Party has its own member running for U.S. House in district six. He is Prince Charles Mallory.