On September 9, the plaintiffs in Balsam v Guadagno filed a notice of appeal to the Third Circuit. This is the case in which some New Jersey voters argue that the U.S. Constitution does not permit governments to pay for the expenses of partisan primaries. In the Third Circuit the case is 14-3882. The U.S. District Court had upheld the New Jersey law that pays for partisan primaries.

On September 4, U.S. District Court Judge David Carter refused to require California to show write-in space on ballots for the November 2014 election. Milonopoulos v Bowen, central district, 2:14cv-5973.

The denial of injunctive relief is mostly based on the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision Burdick v Takushi, which upheld Hawaii’s ban on write-in space on ballots. The order denying injunctive relief does not take into account that Hawaii ballot access to the general election was far, far easier than California’s current access to the general election, for Congressional elections. In Hawaii, a minor party candidate for Congress could appear on the general election ballot if his party was a qualified party and the candidate won his party’s primary, which could be accomplished with a single vote if no one was running against that candidate in that party’s primary.

By contrast, in California, no one can get on the November ballot unless he or she places first or second in the June primary. Even a candidate supported by 30% of the voters may (depending on how the other candidates poll in the primary) fail to qualify for the November ballot.