This news story says that the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party, which has its own primary in Minnesota, will try to keep insincere candidates from filing in its primary.
Minnesota has an open primary. There is no registration by party, and any voter is free to file to run in any party’s primary; also any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot.
On May 9, Maine LD 231 finally became law. It lets independent voters choose a partisan primary ballot, without having to join that party on the spot. Governor Janet Mills did not sign it, but she let it become law without her signature.
It took a long time for this bill to pass. It was introduced in early 2021 and passed both chambers in 2021, but then it was laid on the budget table, meaning it still hadn’t passed until the budget was settled. On April 25, 2022, it was finally removed from the budget table.
On May 8, backers of a top-four system for Missouri submitted approximately 300,000 signatures on their initiative. The initiative needs approximately 170,000 signatures. If the voters enact it, it will be exceedingly difficult for qualified minor parties to remain ballot-qualified. Current law says they stay on the ballot if they poll 2% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. But under the initiative, parties no longer have nominees (except for President), so a party can only remain on the ballot if it can get 2% for President, which is difficult and rarely happens.
On April 28, Danielle Neuschwanger switched her registration from Republican to Constitution. On April 30 the Constitution Party nominated her for Governor of Colorado. Neuschwanger earlier this year had been seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination. She had received 27% of the vote at the Republican endorsements convention, below the 30% needed to run in the Republican primary without a petition. See this story.
On May 6, the South Dakota Secretary of State said that his office does now accept the paperwork filed by the Libertarian Party, listing its candidates. He had initially considered rejecting it due to the time lag between the party’s nominating convention and his receipt of the documents.
