Gautam Dutta has this article about flaws in California’s “top-two” election system, in the Huffington Post of January 17. Dutta is the attorney representing candidates and voters in a pending lawsuit in the California State Court of Appeals. The lawsuit challenges the new California law that bars anyone from being listed on any ballot, in an election for state office and for Congress, as an independent candidate. The same law says candidates may list their party on the ballot, but only if they are registered in a qualified party. Also, he is challenging the law that says write-in votes cannot be counted in November in elections for state and congressional office.

On November 2, 2010, Wisconsin Green Party Assembly nominee Ben Manski received 31.11% of the vote, in a race with Democratic, Republican, and Constitution Party nominees as well. Manski placed second, well ahead of the Republican nominee, in the 77th district, centered in Madison.

That was the first time a minor party nominee for Wisconsin legislature had defeated one major party opponent since 1944, and also the first time since 1944 that a minor party legislative nominee in that state had exceeded 30% of the vote. Manski is Executive Director of Liberty Tree. He won the endorsement of the state’s long-serving Democratic Secretary of State, Doug La Follette. He was also endorsed by two Democrats who ran for that seat in the 2010 primary, by several unions, and by many local elected officials. Here is his campaign web page.

In 1944, the Progressive Party (a party that existed only in Wisconsin) had elected six Assembly members and a State Senator. In 1946 the Progressive Party disbanded and its leaders became Republicans.

Wisconsin is another state that uses a straight-ticket device, which always injures minor party candidates, especially when they are running for an office not near the top of the ballot. Manski calculates that he won more popular votes than any other candidate, among voters who did not use the straight-ticket device. There were no other Green Party nominees on the ballot in Wisconsin in 2010.

On November 2, 2010, Rex Bell, Libertarian nominee for Indiana State House, district 54, polled 20.78% of the vote in a race with both a Democrat and a Republican. That is the first time in at least 85 years that a minor party candidate for the Indiana legislature has polled over 20% of the vote in a race with both major parties.

The 54th district is in east central Indiana, and includes Henry and Wayne Counties, and a small part of Randolph County. Bell lives in Wayne County, where he placed ahead of the Democratic nominee. Bell’s wife, Susan Bell, has been elected as a Libertarian to local partisan office as a Judge, and the Libertarian Party has two other office-holders in that county who were elected in odd-year partisan elections.

Bell has run for this seat three times. The incumbent Republican has been in that seat since 1996. Bell received 14.31% in 2006, running against both a Democrat and a Republican. In 2008, the Democrats didn’t run anyone, and Bell polled 33.49% and carried eight of the 59 precincts in the district. In 2010, Bell rang the doorbells of a majority of voters in the district, and ran radio and newspaper ads. Here is his 2010 web page.

No minor party or independent candidate has been elected to the Indiana legislature since 1914, when two Progressive Party nominees were elected. Indiana has a straight-ticket device, which injures candidates who are running outside the two major parties.