According to an article at Ballot Access News yesterday, the California Senate Elections Committee unanimously passed AB 1413, which makes several changes to the “top-two” system. Among the changes is getting rid of the write-in space in elections for Congress and state office. Under Top Two (prop 14), those votes would not be counted. Nevada, [...]

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This article by Paul Mitchell highlights how Top Two has impacted California elections, as opposed to how it was supposed to effect elections. Mitchell sets out to separate myth from reality: Much of this year’s legislative and congressional drama has focused on the decennial redistricting, but the greater impact could come from our seemingly annual [...]

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Ballot Access News: Solomon Kleinsmith has this article about how top-two systems disadvantage candidates who are not backed by established figures in the two major parties. Kleinsmith is the founder of the blog “Rise of the Center”.

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Press release from Free and Equal emailed to IPR: Two new bills in the California legislature would make it harder to register voters, and harder to circulate petitions for initiative, referendum and recalls. SB205 would make it illegal to pay people to register voters on a per-registrant basis. SB168 would do the same for people [...]

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Ballot Access News: On January 14, Alaska Representative Max Gruenberg (D-Anchorage) introduced HB 77, to provide for a top-two election system for state office and congress. The bill says that anyone who doesn’t qualify for the general election ballot may file as a declared write-in candidate for the November election, even if that person ran [...]

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In over a century of struggle to avoid monopolization of the general election ballot to just the two major parties, there has never been a pressure group that worked in favor of restrictive ballot access laws, until very recently. Leaders of the former New Alliance Party, who have renamed themselves several times, now call themselves IndependentVoting.org. They hold themselves out as the leaders of independent voters, but they have become a pressure group working to limit choices on the general election ballot to just Democrats and Republicans.

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Press release emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com: Statement by Attorney Gautam Dutta in response to Governor Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor Maldonado’s attacks on the SB 6 / Prop 14 lawsuit. “Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado’s joint attacks on the SB 6 lawsuit are baseless attempts to deviate attention from the real issues at hand. [...]

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Press release emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com: SACRAMENTO, Calif. – As reported in the San Jose Mercury News Thursday, July 29, a lawsuit was filed charging that state Senate Bill 6 is unconstitutional. SB 6 is the legislation that put Proposition 14, the Top Two election system, on the June 8 California ballot. Specifically, the lawsuit claims [...]

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Emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com: SAN FRANCISCO — A lawsuit was filed today seeking an injunction to stop the state of California from implementing Senate Bill 6 (SB 6), the law that carries out Proposition 14 (Top-Two Open Primary Act). The court documents are available for download at http://businessandelectionlaw.com/sb6 The complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, [...]

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Press release from Free and Equal Elections Foundation emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com: SAN FRANCISCO – Christina Tobin, candidate for California Secretary of State for the Libertarian Party, will speak at the 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, July 30 to August 4. The forum will be a five-day international event and will include the two-day [...]

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By Dr. Joseph Kolacinski, an assistant professor in Elmira College’s Department of Mathematics at pressconnects.com: Recently, California passed Proposition 14, replacing the state’s old primary election system with the “top-two” or “jungle” primary. It works like this: There is a single, open primary where every voter chooses among all the candidates. The top two vote-getters [...]

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By Ralph Nader at Nader.org: Last month, Big Business interests shamelessly dealt our already depleted democracy a devastating blow by misleading California voters into approving Proposition 14, without their opponents being able to reach the people with rebuttals. This voter initiative provides that the November elections in that state for members of Congress and state [...]

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SAN FRANCISCO – The recently finished campaign surrounding Proposition 14 in California has revealed startling insights into the way media outlets cover essential issues facing voters. Since the proposition passed June 8, Free and Equal Elections staff have continued to follow media coverage of Proposition 14 in California and the spread of the Top Two [...]

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Sent to contact.ipr@gmail.com: Christina Tobin, StopTopTwo.org Chair and founder of Free and Equal Elections Foundation, issued a statement today promoting the ongoing efforts in opposition to Top Two election systems. “StopTopTwo.org is alive and kicking, and we are going to continue fighting this Top Two election system wherever it pops up,” Christina Tobin said. “This [...]

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Ballot Access News: The Los Angeles Times has this article about California’s Proposition 14, which focuses on some of the flaws in the measure. The story is a surprise, because before the election, everything in the print version of that newspaper was overwhelmingly favorable to the measure. LA Times: Politicians, analysts question new open primary [...]

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Greens support lawsuit, consider initiative to nullify Prop. 14; Measure is a clear example of how big money buys California elections, charges Green Party gubernatorial nominee (Distributed by the Green Party of the United States, http://www.gp.org) GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS RELEASE http://www.cagreens.org http://www.cagreens.org/press/pr100609.shtml For immediate release: June 9, 2010 Contacts: Erika McDonald, Spokesperson, 415.337.1499, [...]

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Ballot Access News: This New York Times article of June 9, about the passage of California’s Proposition 14, acknowledges the idea that California general election ballot access is now draconian for minor party and independent candidates.

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Christina Tobin StopTopTwo.org Chair (415) 599-5222 christina@freeandequal.org StopTopTwo.Org and Ralph Nader Release Statements on the Passing of Proposition 14 Sacramento, June 9, 2010 – StopTopTwo.Org and Ralph Nader released statements today regarding the passing of Proposition 14, the Top Two Primaries Act. Proposition 14 was largely funded by corporations to restrict California’s ballot access laws [...]

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Every party, including every third party, in California opposed Proposition 14, but that did not stop it from passing tonight. With 54.7% of the votes reporting statewide, the measure has 56.5% voting for it. The final 44.5% of votes that are as of yet unreported is unlikely to change the wide lead that Proposition 14 [...]

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Socialism.com: Dear Friend: San Francisco hotel workers, California students and Greek workers are all fighting to protect hard-earned gains—whether wages, pensions or public services—from the budget-slashing, corporate monster that currently stalks the planet. Unfortunately, the June 8th primary election ballot is part of this profit-driven drive to consolidate power and prop up stock market prices. [...]

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