On October 9, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed all the Progressive Party member-nominees who are running for state office in Vermont, but only if they also have the Democratic nomination. He did not endorse any Progressive Party nominee who does not have the Democratic nomination as well.

Vermont permits aggregated fusion: candidates with the nomination of more than one party appear on the November ballot once, with both party labels following their names. The party listed first indicates that the candidate is a member of that party. Parties listed second are parties that nominated that same candidate, even though that candidate isn’t a member of the second-listed party.

The Progressive Party has 18 member-nominees on the ballot for state legislature. The Sanders endorsement includes twelve of them.

The Nation here editorializes that its New York readers ought to vote for Joe Biden on the Working Families line, not the Democratic line, so as to enhance the WFP’s ability to remain ballot-qualified. In April 2020 the New York legislature sharply increased the vote test for a party to remain ballot-qualified. Parties need 2% in the presidential race, or 130,000 votes, whichever is more, in order to remain on the ballot. It is virtually certain that 2% of the 2020 New York presidential vote will be greater than 2%, so realistically, the 2% mark is the meaningful requirement.

In 2016, the WFP presidential vote in New York was 1.83%.

The presidential debate sponsored by Free and Equal and Open the Debates will be held Thursday, October 8, at 6 p.m. Denver time. The debate is in Denver and the five participants will be in the room with each other. Anyone may watch via computer by going to freeandequal.org.

The five candidates are Howie Hawkins, Gloria De La Riva, Don Blankenship, Brock Pierce, and Brian Carroll. Eligibility required being on the ballot in at least eight states. Those who were eligible but who chose not to participate are Jo Jorgensen, Rocky De La Fuente, and Kanye West. President Trump and Joe Biden are forbidden by their contracts with the Commission on Presidential Debates to participate in any other general election debates.

The fate of the Trump-Biden remaining two debates is in doubt. The Commission on Presidential Debates wants them to be virtual, but President Trump said on October 8 that he will only continue to debate if the debaters are in the same room with each other.

Meanwhile, Level the Playing Field is readying its cert petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, in Level the Playing Field v FEC, which charges that the Commission is violating federal campaign finance law and that the FEC is derelict for not enforcing those laws.