The New York legislature adjourned for the year on June 17, without having passed even the simplest bills to improve the appearance of the ballot, which is one of the most confusing ballots in the United States. There were at least twelve such bills: A3218, A5622, A5729, A3389, A4147, A5306, A5729, S2154, S2329, S2841, S3953, S7086. They increased the font size for the names of candidates, provided for rotation of names, provided that the ballot could expand to more than a single piece of paper, eliminated party emblems, and made other design improvements.

Also, the legislature didn’t pass any bills to eliminate the absurd characteristic that New York has three partisan primaries in presidential election years: a presidential primary in April, a congressional primary in June, and a state & local office primary in September.

Nor did the legislature pass any bill to ease the strict deadline for voters to switch parties, which is in the year before the primary.

On the other hand, no bill making ballot access worse passed either.

Charleston, West Virginia Mayor Danny Jones has changed his party registration from “Republican” to “independent”, according to this story. He has been elected Mayor four times in partisan elections. The last re-election for him was in 2015. He says he will not run for yet another term in the future. He also says he expects to vote for Gary Johnson in November.

Governing Magazine has this story, publicizing the scandal that 40% (and sometimes more) of U.S. state legislative elections have only one candidate on the ballot in November. Generally, the fewer contested races in any particular state, the worse the ballot access laws are. States in which over half the legislative races typically have only one candidate on the ballot include most southern states, as well as Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. Thanks to several people for the link.