A Superior Court in Vermont will hold a trial in Trudell v Markowitz on July 14-15. This is the lawsuit that challenges the June petition deadline for independent candidates, and for the nominees of unqualified parties. The Vermont primary is in August. Between 1890 and 1939, the independent candidate petition deadline had been in October, and between 1939 and 2009, it had been in September. The change from September to June, made in 2009, was drastic.

The judge in this case had already ruled against the state’s motion to dismiss the case. The prior procedural ruling makes it clear that the state must explain why it needs a deadline in June.

On June 6, the Republican and Democratic Parties filed their opening briefs in Washington State Republican Party v State, 11-35125. This is the same lawsuit that was originally filed in 2005, against the Washington state top-two system. The major party briefs deal with freedom of association. The Libertarian Party’s brief is now due June 20, and it will focus on the ballot access arguments.

In the federal California case against two particular aspects of the California top-two system, the hearing set last week in U.S. District Court was canceled. Judges cancel oral arguments sometimes when they feel they already know everything they want to know about a case. That case is called Chamness v Bowen and is in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It is very likely that Judge Otis Wright will uphold both the discriminatory policy on party labels, and the policy that permits write-in space on ballots but says those write-ins can never be counted. Judge Wright had earlier this year refused to issue an injunction against the labels policy.

Mark C. Miller, the Green Party nominee in 2010 in the Massachusetts State House race (Berkshire 3rd district) who received 45.02% of the total vote, will run for that same seat in a special election later this year. See this story. In 2010, Miller was in a two-person race with a Democrat. That Democrat has now been nominated for a high position in state government, so it is overwhelmingly likely that the seat will soon be empty and a special election will be held.

UPDATE: see this article about Miller’s upcoming run, which ran in the Berkshire Eagle on June 12.