The Sacramento Bee has this op-ed by Michael Feinstein, criticizing the California top-two system for its restriction of candidacy, and asking at least for some modest changes that would improve it.
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Mother Jones has this article about the drop in Green Party registration, and Peace & Freedom registration, in California this year.
This story says an unusually large number of independent candidates are running for the Alaska legislature in 2016. Furthermore, the filing deadline for independents is not until August, so there may be more later.
The Oregon Working Families Party will go off the ballot in August 2016 unless it increases its registration by approximately 1,200 members. The party is working to accomplish that goal. See this story.
On June 3, the California Secretary of State released new registration data. Compared to the previous tally, the April 8 tally, all the parties except the Democratic Party declined, on a percentage basis. The percentage of no party preference voters also declined.
The new percentages are: Democratic 44.82%; Republican 27.29%; American Independent 2.55%; Libertarian .64%; Green .43%; Peace & Freedom .40%; unqualified parties .55%; no party preference 23.32%.
The Apri percentages were: Democratic 43.65%; Republican 27.52%; American Independent 2.75%; Libertarian .68%; Green .54%; Peace & Freedom .43%; unqualified parties .60%; no party preference 23.85%.