The California Secretary of State expects to release the January 2016 registration tally on Friday, February 5. This tally has legal significance because it reveals whether any new parties have qualified. However, it seems obvious that no new parties have qualified. There is a second California registration deadline, on July 11, for parties that just want to be qualified in 2016 for purposes of placing a presidential nominee on the November ballot. Any new parties that meet that July 11 deadline would also be qualified for the 2018 election.

The March 1, 2016 print issue of Ballot Access News will have a chart, showing the number of registered voters in each state, in each party.

The Secretary of State’s January 2016 tally won’t include any data for the Independent Party, which applied in March 2015 to obtain a tally. The Secretary of State refuses to ask the counties to tally the number of registered voters in the Independent Party, because the Secretary says the name is too similar to the name of the American Independent Party. However, the Secretary of State let Americans Elect qualify as a party in 2011, and has permitted the Independent California Party to ask for a tally.

The Secretary of State’s January 2016 tally won’t include the Reform Party tally either, because the Reform Party didn’t ask by the January 4, 2016 deadline, although it has since asked to be tallied. After the January tally, the next tally will be in April 2016.