In the last two days, two very well-informed and sophisticated individuals, both of whom support California’s top-two system, have published assertions that California had a closed primary before the top-two system was implemented in 2011. The February 14 Los Angeles Times has this letter to the editor from Bill Bloomfield, asserting that California had a closed primary before 2011. Bloomfield is a very wealthy, politically active individual who ran a strong campaign for Congress from Los Angeles County in 2012. Scroll down to see his letter. UPDATE: to his credit, he sent me an e-mail shortly after this post was put up, saying he should have said in his letter the pre-2011 primaries were “semi-closed.”

Fox & Hounds, a well-known California blog for politics, ran an article on February 12, asserting that California had a closed primary before 2011. The article is by Marty Wilson, an official of the California Chamber of Commerce.

All Democratic and Republican primaries for congress and partisan state office were open to independent voters, in each election 2001-2010. But, proponents of the top-two system have spread misinformation about this so widely that even the three judges on the State Court of Appeals got it wrong in their January 29, 2015 opinion upholding the top-two system in Rubin v Padilla.

The Oklahoma House Elections & Ethics Committee will hear HB 2181 and HB 1813 on Wednesday morning, February 18. Both of these bills lower the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties. HB 2818 lowers it from 5% of the last vote cast to 1% of the last vote cast. HB 1813 lowers it to exactly 5,000 signatures. Thanks to Richard Prawdzienski for this news.

Utah Representative John Cox (R-Ephraim) has introduced HB 329, which moves the presidential primary from February to the 4th Tuesday in March. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.