In 2013, Kshama Sawant was elected in a non-partisan Seattle city election for City Council. She is running for re-election this year. This story says some Seattle Democrats favor inviting her to party-sponsored debates, but other Democrats object. Washington state voter registration forms do not ask about party affiliation, so whether someone is a member of one particular party is often ambiguous.

On May 15, the Michigan Senate Elections & Government Reform Committee passed SB 329. Here is a description of the bill. IT would say that if a municipal city clerk misinformed candidates for city office about the deadline for them to submit petitions to be on the ballot, then that deadline could be adjusted for that year only.

The bill exists because election officials in Flint this year told candidates that the deadline was a week later than the actual deadline. If the bill doesn’t pass, all candidates for Mayor will be required to be write-in candidates, because no one running for Mayor submitted a valid petition by the deadline. Candidates needed 900 signatures. The election is non-partisan.

On May 12, the Montana Republican Party voluntarily withdrew part of its lawsuit concerning the Montana open primary. The party had asked the Ninth Circuit to rule that the state cannot force the party to elect local party officers in an open primary. The recent Republican Party notice to the Ninth Circuit says, “On May 5, 2015, Montana Governor Steve Bullock signed into law HB 454, which allows political parties to establish their own rules regarding the selection of their internal leaders. Appellants’ preliminary injunction appeal is therefore moot.”

However, the part of the case over whether the party can be forced to let members of other parties vote in its primaries for public office is still alive in the U.S. District Court.