On August 22, the Arizona Secretary of State posted the official election returns for the August 2, 2022 primary. See them here.

Under legislation passed in 2015, write-in candidates in party primaries need a very large number of write-ins, in order to qualify for the general election ballot. None of the Libertarian candidates for federal or state office polled enough write-ins, which is no surprise, because no minor party has been able to meet those requirements in any of the four primaries held since the new law passed.

For the statewide offices, the Libertarian write-in totals are: Governor Barry Hess 550, Attorney General Michael Kielsky 571, Superintendent of Public Instruction Sheila Reid-Shaver 557, Corporation Commissioner Nathan Gage Madden 216. All of them needed 3,715 write-ins. Of course, only registered Libertarians could cast a write-in vote in the Libertarian primary.

If a candidate is on the primary ballot, there is no minimum number of votes needed. Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Marc Victor was on the Libertarian primary ballot, so he only needed one vote. In the primary he received 3,065 votes.

The law is more lenient for parties that are on the ballot as a result of a petition that was completed in either of the last two elections. For these “new” parties, only one write-in vote is needed in that party’s primary. But the Libertarian Party is not a “new” party because it has been on the ballot without interruption since 1996.

On August 22, the Florida State Court of Appeals issued an opinion putting Rebekah Jones on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House, First District. The lower court had ruled against her. Jones v Schiller, 1D22-2465. Here is the opinion, which concerns the Florida law barring candidates from primaries if they have not been registered members of the party for a full year.

The Secretary of State had put Jones on the primary ballot, but then her opponent had challenged that decision, and submitted documents showing that Jones was a registered independent between June and August 2021 when Jones lived in Maryland. Thus the trial court had removed Jones. But the Appeals Court says that the Florida prior affiliation law doesn’t permit exterior evidence. The State Court of Appeals says that if the candidate signs the declaration of candidacy about prior affiliation, and the Secretary of State has no awareness that the declaration is wrong, then the declaration must stand.

This decision might have some helpfulness to the ongoing legal battle to put the People’s Party nominee for Pasco County Commission on the ballot. That case is pending in the Eleventh Circuit. UPDATE: here is a news story.

Pennsylvania election officials have revised the number of signatures needed for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, for district office. For the most part, the revisions increase the number of signatures. The revision was not posted to the state’s website until July 30, 2022. The petition deadline was August 1.

The original requirements for U.S. House, posted several months ago, were: district one 2,343; district two 1,000; district three 1,000; district four 1,748; district five 1,553; district six 1,715; district seven 1,654; district eight 1,571; district nine 2,200; district ten 1,822; district eleven 1,955; district twelve 1,419; district thirteen 2,321; district fourteen 2,277; district fifteen 2,291; district sixteen 2,138; district seventeen 1,814.

The new requirements are: one 2,338; two 1,000; three 2,300; four 2,211; five 1,901; six 1,783; seven 1,641; eight 1,563; nine 2,195; ten 1,812; eleven 1,946; twelve 1,995; thirteen 2,313; fourteen 2,272; fifteen 2,289; sixteen 2,138; seventeen 1,976.

The statewide total for the original figures is 30,821. The statewide total for the revised figures is 33,673. Fortunately the late changes do not seem to have injured any petitioning candidates. Pennsylvania always has trouble determining the number of signatures after a redistricting. It would save a great deal of work if the legislature would provide for a fixed number of signatures instead of 2% of the last winner’s vote, which is complicated when the boundaries change.