The U.S. Supreme Court has set October 1, the first day of the new court season, to hear Washington v Washington Republican Party, no. 06-730. This is the case over whether states may use “top-two” primaries in conjunction with party labels on ballots. A “top-two” primary is very common for non-partisan elections around the U.S. Every voter gets the same primary ballot, and that ballot lists all candidates. A run-off between the top two vote-getters is then held.

Washington state law says that this type of primary should be used for all elections, except presidential elections. The Democratic, Republican and Libertarian Parties sued shortly after this law was passed in 2004. The parties argue that if Washington state is going to use this type of primary, it must leave party labels off the ballot. The U.S. District Court, and the 9th circuit, agreed with the political parties.

On July 10, the California Senate Elections Committee passed both AB 1294 and AB 1662. The first lets non-charter cities and counties use Instant-Runoff Voting for elections for their own officers (currently, only charter cities and counties may do so). AB 1662 lets overseas absentee voters use ranked-choice ballots when they are voting in election which normally have the possibility of an old-fashioned two-stage runoff.

These are the first two bills to advance IRV that have ever made this much headway in the California legislature. The two bills have already passed the Assembly.

On July 5, a motion for reconsideration was filed in Wasson v Bradbury. The U.S. District Court on June 20 had upheld Oregon’s law, making it illegal for primary voters to sign for an independent candidate.