On September 22, Washington state officials said they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the 9th circuit’s decision that outlawed the “top-two” primary. The 9th circuit had ruled on August 23, and had said that since Washington state prints party labels on ballots, therefore the state must honor a party’s right to nominate its own candidates without members of other parties participating. If the U.S. Supreme Court won’t take the case, the Grange will circulate a new initiative, making all elections in the state (except presidential elections) non-partisan.

The Vermont Progressive Party ran eleven candidates for State House of Representatives in 2004, and elected six of them. This year, the party is running seventeen candidates for State House, the most ever. One of the Progressives (Dexter Randall) won the Democratic and Republican nominations as well, so he is certain to be re-elected. Another six Progressives won the Democratic primary.

It is possible that four parties will be represented in the Vermont House after the November 2006 election, since five Libertarians won Republican primaries as well (three of those five primaries were contested). Seven Libertarians were running for the Vermont House of Representatives. If things had gone as planned, that would have meant five with the ballot label “Libertarian, Republican” and two as “Libertarian”. But due to late postal delivery, documents for four candidates were delivered late, so that there now only six Libertarians on the ballot. One has the label “Libertarian”, two have “Libertarian, Republican” and three have just “Republican”, even though they were also nominated by the Libertarian Party.

Hawaii held its primary on Saturday, September 23. The Republican primary for U.S. Senate had six candidates. The winner, Gerald Coffee, had already withdrawn from the race, but his name had remained on the ballot. This means the Republican Party state committee will be able to choose a replacement nominee. The Democratic nominee is incumbent U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka, who defeated Democratic U.S. House member Ed Case.

The U.S. Senate race will be a 3-candidate race. The third candidate will be Libertarian Lloyd Mallan. An independent candidate for U.S. Senate, C. Kaul Jochanan, failed to qualify. Independent candidates in Hawaii (except for president) cannot appear on the November ballot unless they outpoll one of the partisan primary winners, or unless they poll 10% of the vote for that office in all primaries combined. Since Mallan received 209 votes in the Libertarian primary, and Jochanan only received 167 votes in the non-partisan primary, Jochanan cannot qualify.