The author is Economics Professor James Bennett. Bennett wrote a similar book last in 2008 which was published by Springer. Its name was “Stifling Political Competition: How Government has Rigged the System to Benefit Demopublicans and Exclude Third Parties.” That volume didn’t have a big impact because it was only in hardcover, was $99, and yet was relatively short. The new book is expanded and will be less expensive.

Canada, like Great Britain, is accustomed to candidates for Parliament that have no long residential roots in the district that elects them. The Green Party came in 3rd in the 2008 Canadian election in the Saanich-Gulf Islands district, with 10.45%. The district is now represented by a Conservative Party member, who won with 43.43% in the last federal election in 2008.

No one knows when the next Canadian federal election will be held. Canadian parliamentary districts usually have a population of about 100,000 people.

Under a federal court decision won by the Ohio Libertarian Party in 2008, as long as there is no valid ballot access law in place, the state cannot keep any party off the ballot, if it can show that it has a modicum of support. As a result, it is growing increasingly likely that the Libertarian, Green, Constitution and Socialist Parties will remain on the ballot automatically in 2010. Because Ohio’s Constitution requires all qualified political parties to nominate by primary, and because Ohio has its primary in May in 2010, even if the legislature passed a bill in early 2010, it could not impose requirements that would be in effect in 2010.

The Ohio legislature is still in session, but as soon as it passes a budget bill, it will recess for the summer, but will return in the autumn of 2009.

Ironically, however, the proponents never remind people that each of the last two governors of California was initially elected in their type of system. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected for the first time in 2003, in a special election at which all voters received the same ballot, with all candidates listed on the ballot. And previous Governor Gray Davis was elected for the first time in 1998, when California was using the “blanket primary”, another system in which all voters receive identical primary ballots, ballots that list all candidates for the office from all political parties.

Proponents of “top-two” seem to have succeeded in their desire to have “top-two” labeled as an “open primary”. Definitions in this area are hopelessly confused. Most proponents of “top-two” say it is legitimate for them to label “top-two” as an “open primary”, because they say that “open primary” means any system in which independents can vote in the primaries. However, it is already the case that independents in California may vote in the major party primaries in 2010.

However, because of the California budget crisis, it is likely that both hearings will be cancelled. The legislature is not in session July 3-July 5, although legislative leaders continue negotiating a budget over that weekend. Assuming no budget will be in place on July 7, all non-budget legislative hearings are cancelled.

Bills of interest include AB 909, to provide that independent voters should be told at the polls on primary day that they may choose to vote in the Democratic, Republican or American Independent primaries; AB 1121, on letting 10 non-charter cities or counties use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections; AB 6, on requiring firms that pay petition circulators to register with the Secretary of State; and SB 34, to outlaw paying circulators per-signature. All these bills had been set to be heard in one of the two committees on July 7.

Also stalled is AB 1396, to deregulate the Democratic Party’s internal structure. It has passed the Assembly and the Senate Elections Committee, but won’t receive a vote on the Senate floor until the budget is settled.