On June 7, 2024, the leaders of seven British political parties debated each other. See this story.
Britain votes on July 4, and there have been many debates this month. Some of them include only the leaders of the two biggest parties, Conservative and Labour.
In the 1980 presidential election, independent candidate John B. Anderson, who got on the ballot in all 51 ballots, had only been certified for the ballot in four states as of July 1, 1980. This information is from an AP story, dated July 1, located by historian Darcy Richardson. The states were New Jersey, Utah, Kansas, and North Carolina. Furthermore, after he was certified in North Carolina, the Democratic Party sued to remove him, and although Anderson won that lawsuit, as of July 1 he was therefore not absolutely on the ballot in North Carolina either.
On September 9, 1980, the League of Women Voters, which was sponsoring the general election debates, invited him into the September 21 debate, because he met their polling requirement of 15%. The League also required him to be on the ballot in states containing a majority of electoral votes, but the League accepted states in which the petition had been submitted; it did not insist on waiting for certification.
The June 27 presidential debate sponsored by CNN requires candidates running outside the major parties to have qualified in states containing at least 270 electoral votes by June 20. This is an irrational requirement, because the traditional bulk of petitioning for independent presidential candidates is done later in the year than June 20.
For example, in 1992, Ross Perot was only on the ballot in states containing 119 electoral votes as of June 15. The authority for this statement is the June 15, 1992 print issue of Ballot Access News. It shows he was only on the ballot in Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming (12 states). He was finished petitioning in many more states on that date, but the state elections offices hadn’t checked his signatures yet.
On June 17, the Missouri Republican Party filed a notice of appeal in Missouri Republican Party v Secretary of State. This is the lawsuit over whether the party has a freedom of association right to exclude Darrell McClanahan from its primary ballot. He is an “honorary member” of the Ku Klux Klan. He is running for Governor.
The party had lost in trial court on May 17. It is odd that the party took so long to appeal. The primary is August 7.
The Illinois petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, is Monday, June 24. This is one of the earliest deadlines in the nation for presidential candidates running outside the two major parties. The Illinois deadline has been made earlier and earlier over the last 130 years. The original deadline was, passed in 1891, was in October. In 1931 it was moved to August. In 1999 it was moved to June. Governor J. B. Pritzker still hasn’t signed the bill that moves it to May.
The New Mexico petition deadline for newly qualifying parties and independent candidates is Thursday, June 27. That deadline has also been moved earlier and earlier, over the years. The original deadline for new parties was passed in 1917 and was “anytime before the election”, a very impractical and vague law. In 1935 it was moved to late September. In 1975 it was moved to early September. In 1981 it was moved to July. In 1995 it was moved to April. However, that deadline was declared unconstitutional in 2013 in Constitution Party of New Mexico v Duran, so the legislature moved it to June.
