The New York Times has this article about people who make a living gathering signatures on petitions. The story focuses on initiative petitions, and says that in California earlier this year, the rate for a single signature was $15. The article is behind a pay wall.
On October 20, Californiaa filed this brief in USA v State of California, c.d., 2:26cv-12025.
On October 15, the U.S. government filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleging that it has a list of 20,000 registered California voters whom it believes are not citizens. The federal government seeks a court order to impound ballots from any of these individuals who cast a ballot. These ballots would then be set aside and not counted until further investigation shows that they the voters who cast them are eligible. USA v State of California, c.d., 2:26cv-12025.
The case still does not have a judge. Here is the federal government’s October 19 brief.
On October 18, a Hendrix College Poll was rekeased for the Arkansas gubernatorial race was released, showing Libertarian Party nominee Colt Shelby at 11%. See here. While it is normal for minor party and independent candidates to do better in polls than in the actual election, the poll certainly tends to show that Shelby will receive at least 3%. If he does, that will be the first time the Arkansas Libertarian Party will have met the vote test to retain its qualified status. Parties must poll 3% for Governor in midterm years, and 3% for President in presidential years, to remain on the ballot. Although the Libertarian Party generally gets far more than 3% for some statewide races, it has never managed to get 3% for Governor.
A Bellwether Poll released October 16 says the Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State is at 6%, whereas the Lincoln Party is at 5%. See this story. If the actual results are similar, this will give Indiana two ballot-qualified minor parties for the period 2027-2031. A party needs 2% for Secretary of State to be ballot-qualified.
The last time Indiana had two qualified minor parties was 1982-1986, when the American Party and the Libertarian Party were qualified. Back then, the vote test was one-half of 1%, not 2%.
