On August 5, Washington state held its fourth top-two primary. No candidate for Congress or any partisan state office, who was not a Democrat or Republican, managed to place first or second, in races that had at least two major party members running. The non-major party candidates who ran in State House races with at least two major party candidates included eight independents, four Libertarians, and one Green. The non-major party candidates who ran in U.S. House races included one Green and twelve independents.

However, there were many State House races in which only one major party candidate ran. For these races, Libertarians ran eight candidates, Socialist Alternative ran one, and independents ran in five districts. Naturally, with only two candidates running, all fourteen of these non-major party candidates placed second and will be on the November ballot.

No minor party or independent candidates ran for any of the 25 State Senate seats.

In the U.S. House races, in November all will have one Democrat running against one Republican, except in the Fourth District, where two Republicans will be on the ballot. This will be the first U.S. House general election in Washington between two members of the same party. Here is a link to the election returns. Washington has no statewide races up this year.

On August 4, Virginia filed this brief in Sarvis v Judd, the Libertarian Party case that argues the Constitution requires Virginia to give every candidate an equal opportunity to obtain the top spot on the general election ballot. The case is Sarvis v Judd, U.S. District Court, 3:14-cv-479. Current law says that only the qualified parties ever enjoy the top line. Virginia defines “party” to be a group that polled at least 10% of the vote in either of the last two previous elections. Virginia’s 10% vote test is tied for being the second most severe vote test in the nation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this article about Jeff Amason’s ballot access lawsuit. Amason collected the signatures of 5% of his legislative district’s voters, so as to be listed as the Libertarian nominee for State House, 21st district. But he still was kept off the ballot because his wife, who notarized most of his petition sheets, also circulated a few sheets herself (although she did not notarize the sheets she circulated).