On July 15, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly declared that the Washington state “top-two” system is unconstitutional. Washington State Republican Party v Logan, 05-927-Z. The decision is a victory for the state’s Democratic, Republican and Libertarian Parties. The state said it would appeal to the 9th circuit. Assuming Judge Zilly’s ruling stands, this year’s partisan elections will be conducted using an open primary, such as the primaries used in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho and Montana, and most southern states. Washington state does not have partisan registration.

Read the decision here.

Maine’s Secretary of State has finally released the November 2004 registration data, the last state by far to do so. The new tally showed a significant increase in Green registration between June 2004 and November 2004, as well as modest increases in Democratic and independent registration, and a decrease for Republicans. Maine doesn’t tally now many members any other parties have.

Maine Greens now have 2.4% of that state’s registration. The only minor parties in any states with higher shares are the Alaskan Independence Party, the Independent American Party of Nevada (a unit of the Constitution Party), and the Independence Party of New York.

Democrats in Maine increased from 31.1% to 31.2%, whereas Republicans declined from 28.7% to 28.1%.

On July 7, New Jersey’s Governor signed A30, which moves the state’s presidential primary from June to the last Tuesday in February. He also signed A38, which provides for a blank line on the voter registration form in the question about choice of “political party”. In the past, the voter registration form itself didn’t ask about the voter’s choice of political party, but a separate form associated with the voter registration form did ask. Because the two forms were separate, many voters didn’t deal with the second form, so a small proportion of New Jersey voters had been members of any party.