On August 27, the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed AB 1461, the bill to provide that all adult citizens known to the state should be automatically registered to vote. Such individuals would be informed that they had become registered, and would be given a chance to opt out.

The bill was amended on August 27 to provide for a new category of registered voters, relative to party affiliation. Individuals who were automatically registered, and who did not choose to then make a decision about affiliation, would be categorized “unknown.” This would be a new, separate category from “independent”. Other states that have separate categories for voters who didn’t fill out the affiliation question, versus independent voters, are Alaska, Kentucky, and South Dakota. Thanks to C.T. Weber for the news about the amendment.

The bill is likely to pass. It had passed the Assembly on June 2. The Republican leader in the Assembly, Kristin Olsen, had voted “No” but now she appears to support it, according to remarks she made at a public meeting on August 19.

On August 27, Level the Playing Field, Peter Ackerman, the Libertarian Party, and the Green Party filed this new complaint against the Federal Election Commission. Like the similar complaint filed on June 22, this lawsuit concerns general election presidential debates. The complaint is 42 pages. A new complaint was needed because the first one is now out-of-date. The first complaint dealt with the failure of the Federal Election Commission to respond to the 2014 request for a new rule on debates. But then in July 2015, the FEC denied the petition, so now the case attempts to argue that the existing FEC rule violates federal campaign finance law.

On August 27, Fairvote and the Center for Competitive Democracy filed this amicus curiae brief in Rubin v Padilla, the California case which argues that the top-two system unconstitutionally restricts voter choice in general elections for Congress and partisan state office.