On July 20, U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett, a Bush Jr. appointee, cut the number of signatures for Maryland independent candidates by 50%. Ivey v Lamone, 1:20cv-1995. Here is the three-page order. The state agreed to this outcome.
The plaintiff, Amber Ivey, is an independent candidate for U.S. House, 7th district. The original requirement for her was 5,067, but now she needs 2,534 signatures. The deadline is August 3.
On July 20, Arkansas filed this brief in the Eighth Circuit, arguing against ballot access relief for Dan Whitfield, independent U.S. Senate candidate.
On July 20, independent presidential candidate Jade Simmons submitted a South Carolina independent presidential petition. July 20 at noon is the deadline. She is the only person who had submitted such a petition, but she only submitted 1,471 signatures, far short of the 10,000-signature requirement.
South Carolina already has the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, United Citizens, Independence, Alliance, Labor, and Working Families Parties on the ballot. Although Kanye West did not submit a petition, it is possible that one of those parties might nominate him.
Electoral-vote.com has this chart, showing the partisan balance in each state’s legislative chamber. The state chambers are arranged in order of Democratic dominance. The state chambers in the middle of the chart are the chambers that are closely balanced. The majority in quite a few chambers could be switched by changes in a small number of districts.
If a significant number of chambers switched from Republican majorities to Democratic majorities, that would make it likely that the National Popular Vote Plan would add additional states in 2021.
States that don’t have legislative elections in November 2020 (except for perhaps a few special elections) are Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia.
The Constitution Party of Virginia will hold a virtual presidential nominating convention on Saturday, July 25, at 1 p.m. Nominations for president are due by July 24, at 8 p.m. The party is not on the ballot but intends to try to collect the needed 2,500 signatures for whomever it nominates.
