The East Valley Tribune, which covers the eastern Phoenix suburbs, has this article about HB 2305, an election law bill sitting on the Governor’s desk which makes it very difficult for members of small qualified parties to get on their own party primary ballots. The reporter quotes several Republican legislators as saying that they wrote the bill that way because they are upset that Libertarian candidates last year were on the general election ballot in certain races. Such quotations are likely to be relevant to any lawsuit against the measure, if the Governor signs it into law.

Similar remarks were made earlier this year by Montana legislators, when they passed a top-two measure and arranged for the voters to vote on it in 2014. Montana Republican legislators openly said they are tired of having Libertarians on the ballot.

As previously reported, on May 29, the Fourth Circuit struck down Virginia’s law banning out-of-state circulators. The 14 days for the state to possibly have asked for a rehearing en banc has now elapsed, and the state did not ask for reconsideration. The case was Libertarian Party of Virginia v Judd. Of course it is always possible the state will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision. The time limit for that is three months.

On June 18, the U.S. House passed HR1797 by 228-196. The bill bans abortions after twenty weeks. It allows exceptions for rape and incest, but only if the rape or incest had already been reported to police. The bill passed on a virtual party line vote. Republicans voted for the bill 222-6, and Democrats voted against it 190-6.

The six Republicans who voted against the bill included two Republicans who said they voted against the bill because it has an exception for rape or incest. The four Republicans who voted against the bill because they are opposed to further restriction of abortion are all from states that have closed or semi-closed primaries: Charles Dent of Pennsylvania (a closed primary state); Richard Hanna of New York (a closed primary state); and Rodney Freylinghuysen and Jon Runyan, both of New Jersey (a semi-closed primary state).

Proponents of top-two primaries constantly preach that a top-two system produces more moderate legislators, but the June 18 vote is another fragment of evidence that they are wrong. Political science research generally finds no correlation between partisanship and type of primary.