On May 24, 1819 News, a multi-media news source for Alabama, reported that the Secretary of State has accepted the validity of the Libertarian Party’s statewide petition. It required 51,588 valid signatures. The party has been working on it for almost two years. It is the largest election-administration petition ever completed in the state. Alabama has never had the initiative procedure, nor recall, nor referendum, for statewide measures. Also candidates get on primary ballots with filing fees, not petitions.

The 2022 election will be the first election in Alabama with a minor party since 2002, the last time the Libertarians were on statewide.

This is the most difficult petition drive completed by any minor party since 2018, when the Libertarians overcame Ohio’s requirement of 54,965. That Ohio drive gained the party ballot status for both 2018 and 2020. No minor parties are on the Ohio 2022 ballot.

See the news story here.

Michigan has unusually severe petition requirements for primaries for some statewide offices and U.S. House. According to this story, three Republican candidates for U.S. House, and five Republican gubernatorial candidates, have been told they don’t have enough valid signatures. One Democrat running for U.S. House also has been told the same message.

UPDATE: see this article about the Michigan gubernatorial primary ballot problem by Andy Craig, posted at CATO.

On May 23, the losing side in Migliori v Lehigh County Board of Elections asked the Third Circuit to stay its own decision. The issue is whether mail ballots in which the voter forgot to add the date of signing next to the signature on the outer envelope should count. The Third Circuit on May 20 ruled that they should, based on the part of the federal voting rights act that says errors that don’t really matter should not disenfranchise anyone.

The losing side in the Third Circuit says it will ask for U.S. Supreme Court review quickly, and therefore the Third Circuit ought to stay its own decision.