Virginia general election ballots spell out the full names of parties in the presidential part of the ballot, but for all other offices, the state only uses a single letter to identify the party name. This year, for the state offices up on November 2, 2021, the Liberation Party is on the ballot for Governor, and the Libertarian Party is on the ballot in some legislative races. The State Board has decided to identify both of the parties with just the letter “L”. See this story.

The Liberation Party had proposed its own two-letter ideas for itself, and had agreed that “L” should continue to be the Libertarian abbreviation. But the Board is sticking to a single letter, for both parties. Obviously it would be far better to use the full party name for everyone.

Hawaii also uses a single letter instead of the full party name, but at least when the Reform Party was on the ballot in Hawaii, the state used “Rf” for Reform nominees, preserving the “R” for Republicans. In Virginia in the 1990’s, the “Republican” and “Reform” problem did not arise, because before 2001, Virginia did not have any party labels or abbreviations on the ballot, except for president.

A Sacramento County Superior Court will hear Heatlie v Weber on Wednesday, August 4. This is the case over whether California Governor Gavin Newsom’s statement in the Voters Handbook should be censored, to delete the Governor’s self-descrption as a “Democrat”. The lawsuit also argues that the Governor should not be permitted to say the recall is backed by former President Donald Trump and Republicans in general. Heatlie v Weber.

On July 29, former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm died, at the age of 85. He had served two terms as Governor of Colorado, and in 1996 sought the Reform Party presidential nomination. He was one of only two candidates who qualified for the Reform Party’s presidential primary, which was conducted by postal ballot. The other candidate was Ross Perot, who had started the Reform Party in 1995 but who had originally said he didn’t want the party’s nomination. But after Lamm declared for the party’s nomination, Perot also declared for it. The results of the party’s presidential primary were: Perot 32,145; Lamm 17,121. Lamm only won in Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia. Thanks to Independent Political Report for this news.