As reported earlier, the Maine Libertarian Party is in court over whether it should be a qualified party. The law requires a group that wants to be a party to have at least 5,000 registered members by December 1 of the year before the election. The party submitted 6,700 voter registration forms showing the applicant had registered “Libertarian” by the deadline, but election officials said only 4,513 are valid. For the lawsuit, the party’s attorney asked the Secretary of State for copies of all voter registration cards that were rejected. On March 4, the attorney for the Secretary of State refused to furnish those copies, and said the party will just need to get them from the various town clerks. The party believes that the Secretary of State is capable of obtaining these copies, and has asked the Secretary of State to reconsider. The judge may need to settle this.

On March 4, a North Carolina state trial court invalidated the new law setting up retention elections for State Supreme Court Justices. The case is Faires v State Board of Elections, Wake County Superior Court, 15cvs-15903. Here is the short opinion. The state will likely appeal to the State Supreme Court. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. Today’s opinion was not surprising, because the judges had said last week that they were going to rule this way. The State Constitution mandates elections for Supreme Court, and the Faires court said a retention election is not a real election.

The two leading Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in California are Duf Sundheim of Santa Clara County, and Tom Del Beccaro of Contra Costa County. According to this Orange County Register newspaper story, the two candidates publicly disagree on whether the California top-two system is good policy or bad policy. Sundheim helped pass the top-two system in 2010, whereas Del Beccaro opposed it.

It is rare for California elected officials, or major party candidates, to comment on California’s top-two system. As far as is known, Governor Jerry Brown has never said anything in public about Proposition 14.

Both Sundheim and Del Beccaro are former state Republican Party chairs.