On June 16, the Louisiana legislature passed HB 292. It sets up a single ballot for congressional candidates, which all voters use. This ballot is used in November. If anyone gets 50% or more of the vote, that person is elected. Otherwise, there is a run-off in December.

This system is somewhat different from the California and Washington state top-two laws. Louisiana does not prevent any candidate for Congress from campaigning during the summer and fall campaign season.

The Louisiana bill does not take effect until 2011.

On June 15, the legal counsel for the Pennsylvania state agency that controls state parks agreed that small groups of petition circulators may work in state parks without first asking for permission. See this ACLU press release, which has links to the correspondence between the ACLU and the state agency. Those who are interested in having the legal citations that the ACLU cited may wish to print out copies of the correspondence. None of the four letters (two from each side) are more than a page or so.

The Green Party contacted the ACLU after its petitioners were stopped while in Point State Park, located in Pittsburgh.

The June 16 issue of the New York Times has this story, about the possible danger to the Utah Democratic Party, in its upcoming June 22 primary. Utah Democrats have an open primary. Any registered voter may vote in that primary. There is some reason to believe that opponents of the Democratic Party plan to vote in the party’s primary, and vote for the perceived weaker candidate, to make it more likely that the Democrats will lose the general election for U.S. House, 2nd district.