Many Working Families Party nominees in the New York city election of November 2021 (who are almost entirely almost Democratic Party nominees) are being kept off the ballot as WFP nominees. See this story, which says the city Board of Elections has not permitted electronic signatures even though the Board did permit them in 2020.
The Arkansas Secretary of State has verified the petitions for presidential status for 2024 for the Green Party and the Prohibition Party. They each needed 1,000 signatures. The Secretary had earlier verified the presidential petition for the American Solidarity Party.
These three parties did their 2024 presidential petition early because this year the Arkansas legislature increased the requirement to 5,000 signatures, but that law is not in effect yet, so the old law controls at this time.
The Third Circuit will hear Benezet Consulting v Boockvar, 20-2976 on September 23. This is the case over Pennsylvania’s ban on out-of-state circulators for primary petitions. The U.S. District Court had struck down the law, but only as applied to the particular plaintiffs in the case and only as applied to the 2020 election. The issue for the Third Circuit is whether she should have expanded her decision to include all future out-of-state circulators and future elections.
On July 12, Ohio filed a brief in Thompson v DeWine, 21-3514. This is the case over whether Ohio should have granted some petitioning relief for initiative petitions during 2020, due to the covid crisis. The state says the case is moot. It says, “The Covid-19 pandemic gave rise to unique circumstances that are exceptionally unlikely to recur.” That is not necessarily true, as covid-19 cases are again rising in the U.S.
On July 12, the city council of Lansing, Michigan, voted to ask city voters if they wish to use ranked choice voting in future elections for city office. See this story. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.
