Score another one for a less partisan ballot
The California Supreme Court has turned down a plea from a group of minor parties objecting to the rules of Proposition 14, the ballot initiative that ushers in a top-two primary election, set to go live Jan. 1.
The case remains at the appellate level and will be heard early next year, even as a special election is scheduled under the new rules to fill the vacant 28th Senate District seat.
Primary elections will identify the top two vote-getters, whose names will appear on the general ballot regardless of party preference. General-election races could pit Republican against Republican and Democrat against Democrat. Minor-party and independent candidates have challenged the constitutionality of the new system's procedure for denoting political affiliation and restrictions on write-in votes in the general election.
Minor parties' likely exclusion from general-election ballots is one of the unfortunate consequences of a new system that offers a very meaningful improvement on the status quo: Candidates from the polar political extremes will have a tougher time winning a general election. Voters may very well have two candidates from the same party to choose between in the November run-off, but the hyperpartisan choice (typically favored by the party establishment) is the candidate least likely to win. It's one reason even the two major political parties don't like the "top-two" system -- and why the rest of us should.
The so-called minor parties believe the new system is unfair, but we're not sure they won't benefit at some point. Can you see a Libertarian candidate, for example, taking second in a Kern County race, thereby qualifying as one of just two names on the runoff ballot? We can.
