Guam has no electoral votes, but it still holds a public election for president. There will be six parties on the Guam presidential ballot: Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, American Solidarity, and Prohibition. There is also one independent, Dario Hunter, who has the ballot label “Progressive.”
On September 16, an Idaho state court ruled that Kanye West should remain on the ballot as an independent candidate for president. The judge said that the law only requires candidates who use the independent procedure to “state that such persons are offering themselves as independent candidates.” The decision says that because West signed that statement, he fulfilled the law. The decision says that whether he is registered as a party member is irrelevant. Idaho Democratic Party v Denney, cv-01-20-14470. Here is the 15-page decision.
This decision is a case of first impression. Never before had any presidential candidate been kept off any ballot, primary or general, on the basis of how he or she is registered. Many presidential candidates who have used the independent procedure in Idaho were registered party members in their home state. For example, Jill Stein used the Idaho independent procedure in both 2012 and 2016, yet she was a registered Green in her home state of Massachusetts. So the September 16 decision does conform to Idaho precedent.
On September 15, the Democratic Party nominee for Alaska’s U.S. House seat filed a lawsuit in state court, over the state’s decision to drop her partisan affiliation from the November ballot. She is a registered independent and she wants that shown on the ballot. In 2018 Alaska general election ballots did show such partisan affiliations. Galvin v Fenumiai, 3AN-20-0799.
Presumably, if she wins, the state will also restore the partisan affiliation of the nominees of unqualified parties. For example, Scott Kohlhaas petitioned as the Libertarian nominee for state house this year, and he is a registered Libertarian. In past years the ballot would have shown him as a Libertarian, but this year the state has given him the label “petitioning candidate.”
Here is the Galvin complaint. The case has an oral argument on Wednesday, September 16.
On September 15, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard oral argument in the case over whether the Republican-backed referendum petition had enough valid signatures. If the petition did have enough valid signatures, then the ranked-choice law on presidential voting is suspended until the voters decide on whether to keep RCV. In that case, it would not be used in November 2020 for president.
On September 14, the Libertarian Party sent out a press release stating that Jo Jorgensen is on the ballot in all 51 jurisdictions that have electoral votes, but no large newspaper has yet carried the news.
