On June 3, California held a top-two primary for Congress and partisan state office. All 25 minor party candidates who were on the ballot failed to place first or second. As a result, in all U.S. history, there have now been 111 instances in which a minor party member ran for Congress or partisan state office in a top-two system (in elections in which there were at least two major party candidates also running). In all 111 instances, the minor party member did not place first or second and was therefore barred from the general election ballot.

There will be at least three minor party members on the California November ballot, but all three (and conceivably even a few more) ran in races with only one major party member running in the same race. All three of the minor party candidates were write-in candidates in June, and since only one write-in filed in each of these three races, the three minor party candidates cannot fail to place second (assuming the candidate receives at least one write-in vote; write-ins haven’t been counted yet).

Ohio voter registration forms don’t ask voters to choose a party. Yet the state tries to determine the party membership of voters, based on their choice of a primary ballot at the polls on election day. According to this story, many voters who did not choose a Green Party primary ballot last month still were recorded as though they had, due to problems with technology.

On June 2, the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in Raymond v Fenumiai, 13-35090, over Alaska’s ban on out-of-state petition circulators. The U.S. District Court had said the plaintiff, who wants to work on Alaska initiatives but who doesn’t live in Alaska, doesn’t have standing. The Ninth Circuit panel will probably remand the case back to U.S. District Court and allow the complaint to be amended. That will delay the case, but ultimately it is very likely to win, because in 2008 the Ninth Circuit invalidated Arizona’s ban on out-of-state circulators, and Alaska is also in the Ninth Circuit.