Illinois State Senator Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet) has introduced SB 2158, which would establish a top-two system. It even extends the top-two system to presidential elections. Here is the text. See page 45 of the bill, in which section 7-60 would say, “Not withstanding any other provision of law, the two candidates in any primary election who receive the most votes in the primary election, regardless of the party affiliation of the candidates, shall be the only two candidates certified to participate in the general election.”

All Illinois primaries for federal and state office are in early March, so this bill, if enacted, would require anyone who wanted to run in November to file in late November of the odd year before the election year.

Ordinarily, supporters of top-two never write their bills or initiative to include presidential elections, because if they did, the major party presidential nominees wouldn’t be the same in each state. For example, in 2016, the Illinois presidential primary totals for the top three candidates were: Hillary Clinton 1,039,555; Bernie Sanders 999,494; Donald Trump 562,464. Under the terms of SB 2158, the only presidential candidates who would be on the November ballot in Illinois would have been Clinton and Sanders.

Ten Rhode Island State Representatives have introduced HB 5277, to create a top-two system. They are nine Democrats and one Republican. The Democratic sponsors are Arthur Corvese, Samuel Azzinaro, William O’Brien, Scott Slater, Thomas Noret, Brian P. Kennedy, Raymond Hull, Robert Phillips, and Jacquelyn Baginski. The Republican is Brian Rea.

Rhode Island law defines a qualified party as a group whose nominee for either President or Governor received 5% of the vote in the last election. The bill changes this definition so that if a candidate endorsed by a party received 5% for those offices, it would be qualified (the bill keeps the presidential nominee nominee option, however). The bill seems to have no prohibition on two different groups or parties “endorsing” a gubernatorial candidate. Taken literally, the bill would appear to allow the Libertarian Party, for example, “endorse” a Republican running for Governor, who conceivably would qualify for the general election ballot and poll at least 5%. Then, again taking the bill literally, that would seem to cause the Libertarian Party to become a qualified party. However, it is doubtful the bill would be interpreted that way.

Oregon State Senator Fred Girod (R-Stayton) has introduced SB 392, to move the primaries for all office from May to March, in presidential years. This is probably motivated by a desire to have Oregon’s presidential primary play a bigger role in the major party presidential nomination process.