This CalBuzz article says Democrats in the California legislature may introduce a bill (or amend another election law bill to add a new provision) soon to provide that initiatives, no matter when they are submitted, will not appear on the June primary ballot. Instead they would wait and be placed on the November ballot. The rationale is that initiatives should be on the ballot that draws all voters to the polls. Democrats believe that the June 2012 primary ballot in California will have low turnout from Democrats, but high turnout from Republicans, because the Republican presidential primary will theoretically be exciting but the Democratic presidential primary will not be exciting. Therefore, the voters who show up in June would be skewed.

The June 2012 primary will also contain U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and legislature, but again, in 2012, the U.S. Senate race is likely to be more exciting for Republican voters than for Democratic voters, because incumbent U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein is running for re-election and no Democrat with any support is expected to enter the race against her.

California currently is the only state, or almost the only state, that ever permits statewide initiatives to appear on a primary ballot.

On August 30, Tucson, Arizona, held partisan primaries for Mayor and other city office. No one had filed to be on the Republican ballot for Mayor, but a write-in candidate polled enough votes to be nominated. The only party with at least two candidates on the ballot for Mayor was the Green Party. See this story. The November 8, 2011, mayoral general election will be between a Democrat, a Republican, and a Green.

On August 30, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon issued opinions in two closely related cases, Bernbeck v Gale, 4:10cv-3001, and Citizens in Charge v Gale, 4:09cv-3255. In the Citizens in Charge case, the judge struck down the Nebraska law that bans out-of-state circulators, but upheld a state law that says all petitions must carry in red ink and large font, “This petition is circulated by a paid circulator.” Of course, if the circulator is not being paid, the petition need not carry that message. UPDATE: here is the AP story on the decision.

In the Bernbeck case, the Judge upheld the state’s ban on paying circulators on a per-signature basis. However, the state law does not ban paying bonuses to circulators who have high productivity. Also in the Bernbeck case, the Judge struck down a law saying the sponsor of a local initiative must be a resident of that locality. He upheld a law making it illegal for people under age 18 to circulate petitions. Here is the Bernbeck decision. Here is the Citizens in Charge decision, the one that strikes down the ban on out-of-state circulators.

The decision striking down the ban on out-of-state circulators is very significant, because in 2001 the 8th circuit had upheld North Dakota’s ban on out-of-state circulators, and Nebraska is in the 8th circuit. Judge Battaillon said the 8th circuit case is not controlling because in that case, the plaintiffs did not present any evidence about how burdensome the ban is. In the recent Nebraska case, the plaintiffs did present such evidence. Thanks to Kent Bernbeck for this news and for one of the links, and thanks to Paul Jacob for the other link.