As of October 12, here are the number of registered voters in each of the three qualified parties of Kansas: Republican 865,387; Democratic 509,048; Libertarian 20,353; independent and miscellaneous 524,195.

The percentages are: Republican 45.10%; Democratic 26.53%; Libertarian 1.06%; independent and miscellaneous 27.32%.

In February 2020, the percentages were: Republican 43.78%; Democratic 24.85%; Libertarian .99%; independent and miscellaneous 30.38%.

This is the first time that any party other than the Republican or Democratic Parties has had registration above 1% of the total since 1973, when all parts of Kansas first required voter registration. Before 1973, each county decided for itself whether to require voter registration or not. Thus before 1973 there are no official, complete registration tallies for the entire state.

The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) is a 35-year-old loose coalition of most of the nation’s nationally-organized minor parties. It frequently helps fund ballot access lawsuits. Most recently, it donated $1,500 to the lawsuit filed by Don Blankenship against the California independent presidential petition requirement of 196,964 signatures, to be collected entirely during the period of the health crisis, April through August. That case should have won, but it did not.

Now COFOE wishes to help fund the cert petition for Buscemi v Bell, the case involving the North Carolina independent presidential petition deadline of March 3, 2020. In a shocking decision in July 2020, the Fourth Circuit upheld that deadline, notwithstanding that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down early petition deadlines for independent presidential candidates in Anderson v Celebrezze in 1983. In August 2020 the Fourth Circuit refused to reconsider.

COFOE obtains all its income from readers of this blog. Please consider making a donation to COFOE. If you donate at least $25, you get a free one-year subscription to the print edition of Ballot Access News. Send any checks to COFOE, PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147. The November 1 print issue of Ballot Access News will contain a chart showing the number of legislative candidates nominated by each political party, by state, including the Democratic and Republican Parties, and the number of independent candidates in each state. It will also contain the amount of money donated to each political party on state income tax forms during 2020, for the states that have a check-off for political parties on state income tax returns. It will also contain a chart showing the number of registered voters in each party, in each state, if the data can be obtained in time. If not, the registration data will be in the December 1 issue. This type of information is not available from any other publication. If you read this blog, but have never contributed to COFOE, please consider making such a donation.

A paradox of the U.S. election system is that U.S. adult citizens who live in foreign countries are permitted to vote in U.S. elections (in the state in which they lived before they moved abroad). But if U.S. adult citizens move to a U.S. possession, they can’t vote in the state in which they lived before moving to the possession.

Many lawsuits have been filed to upset this system. A new one was filed on October 8 in U.S. District Court in Hawsaii, by six voters who now live in Guam. Reeves v Nago, 1:20cv-433. Here is the Complaint.

A somewhat similar lawsuit won in U.S. District Court in Utah last year. However, the U.S. District Court Judge stayed his own opinion while the federal government appealed to the Tenth Circuit. Fitisemanu v USA, 20-4017. That case was argued on September 23, 2020, and no decision has been issued yet. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news about the new Reeves case.