Here is the web page for the Arizona group that is attempting to qualify an initiative on the November 2012, to pass a top-two open primary law. The map misleads viewers into thinking that Nebraska has a top-two open primary. Actually, Nebraska has semi-closed primaries for President, Congress, all state executive offices, and all partisan county offices.

The adherents of the Arizona initiative, if asked about this, would probably say, “Yes, but Nebraska has non-partisan legislative elections”, and that would be true. However, non-partisan elections are not the same as top-two open primary systems. Although vocabulary in this area of election law is frequently confusing, all writers about primary systems define “top-two Primary” to be a system in which party labels appear on ballots, yet parties don’t nominate candidates.

Party labels on the ballot are the single most important determinant of how voters vote. Political science research has confirmed this for over half a century. A system without party labels, such as the Nebraska legislative election system, is therefore very different from any system in which party labels appear on the ballot. Nebraska has had non-partisan elections for the legislature since 1934. Nevertheless, political science research has shown that even the Nebraska legislature, in recent years, has behaved in a very partisan manner. Thanks to Mark Rogalski and Christina Tobin for the link.

Vermont is tied for having the earliest petition deadline for independent presidential candidates. Also, Vermont has very cumbersome petition-checking procedures for independent presidential candidates. They must take the petitions to each town, wait for the town clerks to check the signatures, and then collect the signatures and physically take them to the Secretary of State. Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party failed to qualify, and sued. On August 6, a Superior Court Judge in Washington County ruled that the Justice Party has two more weeks to complete the process. Here is the opinion, which says the procedures the Secretary of State has been using violate the U.S. Constitution. The judge also said that the state must accepted petitions that were collected on photocopies of blank petition forms. The state had been insisting that only forms issued by the state (and not copies made by the group) were valid.

The case is Anderson v State of Vermont, 480-6-12. It seems somewhat likely that the Constitution Party and the Green Party may also benefit from this ruling.

On July 5, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a 3-page ruling in Kurita v The State Primary Board of the Tennessee Democratic Party, upholding the action of the Tennessee Democratic Party in 2008 and also upholding the U.S. District Court decision of 2008. The incumbent Democratic State Senator, Rosalind Kurita, had won the primary, although by only 19 votes. But the party decertified her as its nominee, and instead nominated the runner-up. The party was hostile to her because she had voted for a Republican for Senate President. Also the Democratic Party charged that some of the voters in the Democratic primary were Republicans. Tennessee has open primaries.

The Sixth Circit decision has almost no original content, and on the merits, merely says that the U.S. District Court decision was correct. The implications of this decision are significant, because the U.S. District Court decision only covered Tennessee, but the 6th circuit decision will also control future similar disputes in Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky, which are the other states in the Sixth Circuit. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.