Michael Chamness, who is on the ballot in this month’s special California State Senate election in Los Angeles County, has this op-ed in the Daily Breeze, explaining some of the problems for voters caused by the new top-two system.

In 2010, a new party called the Tea Party qualified for the Florida ballot. Many of the Tea Party nominees had their ballot positions challenged in lawsuits filed by various Republicans. For a summary of these lawsuits, see this web page of “Central Florida Republicans.” Most of these lawsuits have been dismissed. On February 1, the lawsuit Hensarling v Foley, which had been pending in state Circuit Court in the Orange-Osceola district, was dismissed before the plaintiffs were able to engage in discovery. See this story. The defendant, Jon Foley, had appeared on the November 2, 2010 ballot as the Tea Party nominee for State House, 41st district.

Here is the text of HR 453, the bill introduced on January 26 by North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler to require the states to use bipartisan redistricting commissions to draw boundaries for U.S. House boundaries. The bill has a special procedure for Nebraska, which has a nonpartisan state legislature.

At the close of registration for the November 2010 election, 26.4% of all registered voters were registered outside the two major parties (these figures, of course, only relate to the 29 states that have registration by party, plus D.C.). It is unfortunate that no bill in Congress, to reform procedures for redistricting, has any procedure for those voters to participate in redistricting commissions. California’s new procedure for a redistricting commission includes them.