As noted earlier, on March 19, a U.S. District Court in Arizona had upheld the state’s voter registration forms. Even though Arizona provides mandatory primaries to five political parties, the state’s voter registration forms only have three checkboxes, labeled “Democratic”, “Republican” and “other.” There is a short blank line next to the “other” checkbox, so that voters can either write in “independent” or the name of some other party, qualified or not. The case is Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 4:11cv-856.

The Libertarian and Green Parties had asked for reconsideration on April 15. On April 22, the judge asked the state to respond to the request for reconsideration. On May 3, the state courteously responded that it had no objection to the request for rehearing and the additional evidence that had been submitted with the reconsideration request. The fact that the judge asked the state to respond is encouraging; most requests for reconsideration are simply denied.