On July 16, proponents of a local initiative in Bridgeport, Ohio, asked the State Supreme Court to order the village clerk to accept their initiative. The initiative lowers the penalty for marijuana possession to the lowest level allowed by state law. The case is State of Ohio ex rel William Schmitt v Village of Bridgeport, 2021-0878.

Three times the proponents brought their completed petitions to the clerk, and each time he refused to accept them. Here is the complaint.

Bridgeport is in Belmont County, across the Ohio River from Wheeling, West Virginia.

Friday, July 16, was the deadline for candidates to file for the California gubernatorial election being held on September 14, 2021. The state will not release the list of candidates for another week.

California sends a voter pamphlet to each registered voter in the postal mail, and the pamphlet contains information on whether any qualified parties have endorsed any particular candidate. It appears that only two of California’s qualified parties have endorsed anyone. The Libertarian Party has endorsed its member Jeff Hewitt, and the American Independent Party has endorsed a Republican, Larry Elder. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for this news.

On July 16, the Maine Libertarian Party filed this letter brief with the U.S. District Court that is hearing the party’s lawsuit over how a party gains and keeps qualified status, and also how a member of a small qualified party may get on the primary ballot.

The party’s letter was in response to a letter sent to the court last month by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State’s letter said that the 2021 legislature had eased the means for a party to remain ballot-qualified, and therefore the Libertarian case is now less persuasive, because the law is better now. But the legislature did nothing to make it easier for a party to become ballot-qualified, nor did it ease the difficulty of a member of a small qualified party to get on the primary ballot for that party.