The Hayes for Maine campaign recently filed a legal complaint against Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, alleging that his office is stifling the campaign's ability to distribute campaign material to voters and collect Clean Elections contributions on primary election day.

At the same time, the secretary of state's office asserts that it is following the state's election laws.

The California Energy Commission, more or less on the fly, has decreed that beginning in 2020 all new single-family homes and low-rise multi-family residential projects must be built with rooftop solar panels.

Although they would add perhaps $10,000 to the cost of a new home, the commission insists that solar arrays would pay for themselves in lower electric power bills while helping the state meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals.

Andrew Gumbel is grumbling over the potential consequences of the 2018 nonpartisan California primary election. He claims the nonpartisan primary is not working as intended. Perhaps he should have gotten in touch with the authors of Proposition 14 to see if it has met the goals they had in mind.

There were three:

It's official... independents have passed Republicans for voter registration in California.

According to Political Data Inc., No Party Preference or independent voters are now the second largest voting bloc in the Golden State.

The latest count shows that voters registered No Party Preference outnumber Republicans by about 73,000 in California. The state has about 19 million voters.

US District Court Judge Jon D. Levy threw out the Maine Republican Party's legal complaint against ranked choice voting Tuesday. It's yet another legal challenge the election reform has survived in the rocky road to the June primary elections.

Judge Levy said the Maine GOP's claim that the ranked choice voting law violated its associational rights doesn't hold water against the state's constitutional authority to sponsor and regulate elections.

Rep. Jeff Denham  (R-CA) is passionate enough about immigration reform that he is leading an effort to buck House Republican leadership to get it done. And if he does, it could open up a lane for more compromise on healthcare reform efforts.

The June Primary is fast approaching!

Candidates are preparing final outreach to voters and are working hard to finish in the top-two of their respective races to compete in the November General election.

California holds a nonpartisan top-two primary, which means that you can vote for the candidate of your choice, regardless of your party registration or lack thereof.

IVN, with the help of the Secretary of State, is providing this ballot voter guide for the top statewide races.

As a primary care doctor in Harlem, I see the impact of social conditions such as poverty, lead paint poisoning, and asthma-causing mold in public housing, as well as the emotional trauma that accompanies financial barriers such as not having the right medical coverage to gain timely and effective treatment.

As a community organizer and political independent, I see the barriers that block poor and ordinary people from full and equal participation in our democracy. These are literally matters of life and death.

By vetoing the appointment of 81-year-old Paolo Savona over the weekend, establishment Italian President Sergio Mattarella all but nullified the vote of the Italian people last March and removed the possibility, at least for now, that the Five Star movement and ultranationalist League "Lega" would form Italy's new coalition government.

It’s been a while! However, no matter how little we’ve written about independent candidates and organizations over the past month, actions continue to be taken by those who look to change the two-party system.