Washington Top-Two Primary of August 6

Posted on by August 7, 2024
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Washington state held its top-two primary on August 6.  All of the statewide executive posts are up in presidential years.  In the race for Commissioner of Public Lands, five Democrats and two Republicans ran.  As of August 7, the two Republicans are occupying the first and second positions.  However, the votes are not all counted yet.  If the trend continues, there will be no Democrat on the November ballot for Commissioner of Public Lands.  Here is a link to the election returns.

In the Secretary of State’s race, Damon Townsend used the ballot label “No Labels”, and he placed third with 4.62%.  He appears to be the only candidate who appeared on a primary ballot so far this year with that label.  The No Labels organization took no steps to block Townsend’s use of that label.

Kansas Secretary of State Interprets Vote Test for Party Retention in a Favorable Way

Posted on by August 7, 2024
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The Kansas Secretary of State’s office says all the qualified parties will retain their status in November 2024.  The law is ambiguous in years when the only statewide office on the ballot is President.  2024 is such a year.  The recent interpretation says there is no need for parties to poll 1% of the vote for president.  The vote test applies every two years if there is a statewide office (other than president) on the ballot.  So if there were a U.S. Senate race this year, parties would need to poll 1% for that.

The law was interpreted in the same favorable way in 2000.  But it was interpreted in a more restrictive way in 2012, the last time the issue arose.

The qualified parties are Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, No Labels, ad United Kansas.

United Kansas Party Files Lawsuits in State Court to Force Kansas to Permit Fusion

Posted on by August 7, 2024
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On July 10, the United Kansas Party filed two lawsuits in state court to force the state to allow two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate.  The link goes to the Complaint in one of the cases, United Kansas Party v Schwab, Saline County, 28th judicial district, sa-2024-cv-152.  The two cases are identical; each one has one particular candidate-plaintiff.  The other case, also called United Kanss Party v Schwab, is filed in Reno County, rn-2024-cv-184.

The party has nominated two candidates for the legislature who were also running in major party primaries on August 6, and who each won their major party primary:  Lori Blake is the Democratic nominee in the 69th district, and Jason Probst is the Democratic nominee in the 102nd district.  They each want to be on the ballot with both party labels, Democrat and United Kansas.

The United Kansas gained qualified status in Kansas in May 2024, and the founders of the party always had the goal of legalizing fusion.  The lawsuits depend on the State Constitution.  The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires states to permit fusion.

The United Kansas Party had also nominated J.C. Moore to run for State Senate in the 26th district, but he lost his Republican primary on August 6.