On March 9, U.S. District Court Judge Louise Wood Flanagan, a Bush Jr. appointee, upheld North Carolina’s ban on a voter taking a picture of that voter’s voted ballot. Hogarth v Bell, e.d., 5:24cv-481. The ruling says the ban is necessary to prevent a voter from being bribed. This is an unconvincing reason. The law does not prevent a voter from taking a photo (allegedly to show the briber) but then requesting a new ballot, and voting differently on the new, replacement ballot, and casting that replacement ballot. Here is the Opinion.

Filing has closed for the June 2026 California top-two primary. The gubernatorial candidates of the Socialist Workers Party and of the American Solidarity Party each qualified, although the law won’t allow their party names to be listed on the ballot. The candidates are Margaret Trowe for the Socialist Workers Party, and Duane Loynes for the ASP.

On March 6, the Oregon legislature adjourned. HB 1330, which would have created a hybrid primary system, failed to pass. The bill would have used a top-two system, but with the extra provision that a party that had no nominee on the general election ballot as a result of the top-two process could still have a nominee on the ballot.