This National Public Radio story reports on a new poll that shows a majority of U.S. voters say they want a multi-party system.
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Louisiana filing for U.S. House candidates closed on August 7. Here is the list. The only minor party candidates are Libertarians running in the 2nd and 6th districts.
According to this Daily Kos story, the Democratic Party has a candidate for U.S. House in every district in the nation, except in California’s 40th district. The reason no Democrat will be running in that district that the top-two system worked so as to put two Republicans, and one one else, on the November ballot in that district.
On August 5, supporters of an Arkansas initiative petition sued the Secretary of State for rejecting the completed petition. The Secretary of State had rejected the petition because the sheets showed the title of the initiative was “The Ballot Measure Rights Amendment of 2026.” But the Secretary of State, whose job it is to assign titles, had earlier determined that the measure should be the “The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment.”
The lawsuit is Hanna v Jester, cv-26-543. The initiative provides that when voters approve an initiative, the legislature cannot later repeal or amend the contests of the initiative, without another vote of the people. Supporters had gathered almost 200,000 signatures, twice the number required.
Tennessee held general elections for county office on August 6. In Moore County, incumbent sheriff Justin Tyler Hatfield, an independent candidate, defeated his only opponent, the Republican nominee William Raline. The vote was 1,570 to 417.
The ballot listed Hatfield on the top line. The Republican Party had complained that Raline should have been listed first, but the complaint was filed so close to the election, nothing was done about it. Tennessee law says independent candidates should be listed underneath the nominees of political parties.
Back in February 2026, Hatfield had been disqualified because he had submitted his declaration of candidacy late, but he sued and won on the basis that the elections office had given him the wrong information about the deadline. That lawsuit was Hatfield v Sanders, Chancery Court, Moore County, case 3322.