Both California and Washington state are using the type of top-two system which gives voters only two choices in the election itself. Proponents of top-two primaries might be satisfied if California and Washington returned to using a blanket primary. California used a blanket primary in 1998 and 2000; Washington state used it 1934 through 2002. In a blanket primary, all candidates run on a single primary ballot and all voters use the same primary ballot. Then, the top vote-getter from the ranks of each party appear on the November ballot.

It is true the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated California’s blanket primary in 2000. However, in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to feel that the freedom of association problem with either a top-two primary or a blanket primary can be overcome if the state prints a candidate’s party “preference” on the ballot, and if the ballot carries language warning voters that parties don’t have nominees. There is no logical reason why those tweaks could not be made to the blanket primary. That would have the virtue of restoring a broad range of choices for votes in November. For instance, if California has used a blanket primary in 2012, the November ballot would have carried these names and labels on the ballot: “Dianne Feinstein, prefers Democratic Party; Elizabeth Emken, prefers Republicans Party; Gail Lightfoot, prefers Libertarian Party; Marsha Feinland, prefers Peace & Freedom Party; Don J. Grundmann, prefers American Independent Party.”

Alaska uses a blanket primary, although only the Democratic, Libertarian, and Alaskan Independence Parties participate in the blanket primary; the Republicans have their own separate primary ballot.

For many decades, San Mateo County, California, has been the only county in California that elects its county supervisors at-large. Even San Mateo County had five supervisor districts, but the only purpose of the supervisor districts was to make it possible for a residency requirement to exist. The voters in the entire county chose each supervisor, but the law required that each seat was numbered, and assigned to a particular district. So only residents of one particular area could run for any particular seat.

On November 6, San Mateo County voters voted for Measure B, to elect supervisors in future elections on a district basis. Of course, the measure could not take effect until the 2014 election. At the November 2012 election, the winner for the district four seat, Warren Slocum, actually lost to Shelly Masur within the boundaries of district four. But, under the old system, which was still in effect, that made no difference. The vote throughout the entire county favored Slocum over Masur, so Slocum is elected. Ironically, Slocum favored Measure B, even though if it had been passed two years ago, he would have lost. See this story.

On November 3, U.S. District Court Judge Cindy Jorgenson held an oral argument in Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 4:11cv856, in Tucson. The issue is the constitutionality of the Arizona voter registration form, which lists checkboxes for the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and then a blank line for anyone who wants to register into any other party or to register as an independent. The plaintiffs are the Libertarian Party and the Green Party.

The Judge seemed interested in the case, and had even researched the case law herself, bringing up several cases not mentioned in the briefs in which courts ruled that voters in certain unqualified parties have the right to register into those parties. That is not quite the same issue. Arizona is the only state that has ever prepared voter registration forms that list some parties that always nominate by primary, yet the same form does not mention all the parties that always nominate by primary. The state argued that listing just the Democratic and Republican Parties is a trivial burden for the plaintiff parties. However, parties in Arizona go off the ballot (after two elections) if they neither polled 5% of the vote for the office at the top of the ballot, or if they don’t have registration of at least two-thirds of 1%. The Green Party in particular needs to triple its registration by early 2015 (or else poll 5% for Governor in 2014) or it will go off the ballot. Having the Green Party listed on the voter registration form is extremely important to that party. The Libertarian Party remains on the ballot because it keeps its registration above two-thirds of 1%, but it is always a struggle.