The Florida ballot access case filed by the Independent Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation will proceed next year, toward a determination as to whether the law is constitutional or not. The law says that a ballot-qualified party cannot place a presidential nominee on the ballot unless it is either is recognized by the Federal Election Commission or unless it submits a petition of 132,781 signatures, due July 15.

The U.S. District Court and the Eleventh Circuit denied injunctive relief earlier this year, but that does not necessarily mean the lawsuit can’t win declaratory relief. The plaintiffs decided not to expedite the case, so it will proceed in 2021.

On August 15, the American Independent Party, which exists only in California, held its state convention. It nominated presidential electors pledged to Rocky De La Fuente for president, and Kanye West for vice-president. The meeting was electronic with approximately 20 participants. The vote was unanimous, except for one abstention.

There is no law in California requiring general election presidential and vice-presidential candidates to assent to their nomination by a ballot-qualified party. The party had reached out to Kanye West in the past week, but could not reach him. De La Fuente, of course, had sought the party’s nomination and had placed second in the party’s March 2020 presidential primary.

New Jersey Policy Perspective has just released a study by Julia Sass Rubin, showing how New Jersey primary ballot design tilts the results. The paper does not cover general election ballots, but almost all counties in New Jersey have the same type of flaw in general elections. Democratic and Republican nominees have their own party column, in the left part of the ballot; everyone else lacks a party column and all the minor party and independent candidates are jumbled together in columns without headings.