On May 9, the New Jersey Secretary of State filed a brief in Balsam v Guadagno, U.S. District Court 2:14cv-1388. This is the case, filed in March 2014, in which some New Jersey voters complain that they want to vote in Democratic or Republican primaries, but they don’t want to be listed as members of those parties.

As to the point that the voters’ complain that their right to vote is being injured, the state’s brief says, “Their mere desire is overborne by the countervailing and legitimate right of political parties to exclude non-members from their nominating processes.”

As to the point that the New Jersey Constitution seems to have a provision making it illegal for the state to pay for the primaries, the state says that is a matter for state court, and also that the particular voters who filed the lawsuit don’t have standing because they haven’t showed how the payment injures them specifically.

New Jersey lets independent voters vote in major party primaries. However, if an independent chooses to vote in a major party primary, he or she is then listed as a party member. However, anyone is always free to re-register and revert back to independent status.

The plaintiffs haven’t yet filed a brief in this case.

On May 9, the Massachusetts Republican Party agreed that Mark Fisher can be on the Republican primary ballot. Fisher, who is running for Governor, had sued the party because the party had initially said that he didn’t get 15% of the vote at the party’s state convention. See this story.

Massachusetts election law does not have any provision permitting parties to reject candidates who fail to get at least 15% of the vote at party conventions, but federal and state courts in Massachusetts have ruled that parties can enforce such rules. Massachusetts law does require 10,000 signatures of party members and/or independents to get on a primary ballot for Governor, and Fisher must meet this requirement. However, he turned in over 15,000 raw signatures, so he is likely to be on the September 9 primary ballot.

On May 10, Rasmussen released the results of a poll for U.S. Senator. The respondents were asked, “If the election were held today, would you vote for Republican Thom Tillis or Democrat Kay Hagan?” Despite this heavy-handed attempt to discourage respondents from saying they favor the third candidate, Libertarian Sean Haugh, the results are: Tillis 45%, Hagan 44%, “someone else” (which the respondent had to volunteer) 5%, undecided 7%.

One would think that any pollster who wants accurate results would ask respondents about all three candidates whose names will appear on the ballot. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.