On June 24, the Arizona Supreme Court finally explained why it had invalidated Kanye West’s independent presidential petition in 2020. Clayton v West, cv-20-0249. Here is the eight-page opinion.

The petition was invalid because West’s nominees for presidential elector did not file statements of interest, a form that did not exist until it was created in 2019. The Arizona Supreme Court did not mention the fact that the Secretary of State’s website, which has detailed instructions for candidates of all types, never said that candidates for presidential elector must file this form. The Court simply said, the law requires candidates of almost all kinds to file such statements, and West’s electors did not, so he was properly kept off the ballot.

The Court did reject the other argument against West, that he could not be an independent presidential candidate because he was a registered Republican in his home state of Wyoming.

From now on, all candidates for presidential elector in Arizona are on notice that they must file a statement of interest. The statement of interest is to indicate that the applicant intends to be a candidate in the upcoming election, and provides contact information. The form does not ask about campaign finance. An earlier version of this post said that it is a campaign finance document, but it is not.

Maine bill LD 1061 has passed the legislature. Governor Janet Mills didn’t sign it, but she didn’t veto it either, so it is now law. It somewhat eases the means for a party to remain ballot-qualified. The old law said it had to have at least 10,000 registered members who actually went to the polls in November, in order to remain on. The new law says it must have 10,000 registered members on general election day, but it doesn’t matter how many of them go to the polls.

Also the bill says a party also remains ballot-qualified if it polls 5% for Governor or President at either of the last two elections.

The bill started out by making it easier for a new party to become ballot-qualified, but that part of the bill was amended out. It originally cut the 5,000-registered members provision to 2,500.

If LD 1061 had been in effect in 2016, the Maine Libertarian Party would have been ballot-qualified in 2020, because Gary Johnson, the 2016 presidential nominee, received 5.09%.

On June 22, Curtis Sliwa won the Republican primary for Mayor of New York city. See this story. Sliwa was state chair of the Reform Party starting in September 2016. The Reform Party lost its qualified status in New York state in November 2018. In the November 2020 election, Sliwa endorsed Brock Pierce for president. Pierce was an independent presidential candidate who was also the nominee of the Independence Party of New York state.

Sliwa defeated his only opponent in the 2021 primary, Fernando Mateo, even though Mateo received approximately $2,000,000 in public funding, and Sliwa did not receive any public funding. The Republican Parties of Manhattan, Queens, and Bronx endorsed Mateo, but the Republican Parties of Brooklyn and Staten Island endorsed Sliwa. Thanks to Frank Morano for this news.