An Arizona state trial court has removed a statewide initiative from the ballot because, the judge felt, the petition did not accurately describe the measure. See this story.
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This story says Kanye West is petitioning to get on the ballot in West Virginia, Ohio, and Arkansas.
On August 1, the Peace & Freedom Party held an electronic state convention. It nominated Gloria La Riva for president and Sunil Freeman of Maryland for vice-president.
On August 1, the Idaho Constitution Party held its own state convention to choose presidential and vice-presidential nominees. The group voted for the ticket that had been chosen in May 2020 at the party’s national convention: Don Blankenship for president and William Mohr for vice-president. Thanks to Jeff Becker for this news.
On July 31, the Eleventh Circuit heard Independent Party of Florida v Lee, 20-12107. The Eleventh Circuit does not make recordings of oral arguments available on its website. The three judges are William Pryor (a Bush Jr. appointee), Robin Rosenbaum (Obama), and Robert J. Luck (Trump). The issue is the 2011 Florida law that said even though a party is ballot-qualified, it can’t be on for president unless it is either recognized as a national committee by the Federal Election Commission, or unless it submits 132,781 signatures by July 15.
A few days before the hearing, the panel had asked the attorneys to discuss whether the parties have standing, because they did not try to petition. But three U.S. Supreme Court opinions, and numerous lower court opinions (including some in the Eleventh Circuit), have said that minor parties and independent candidates do have standing to challenge onerous ballot access laws even if they didn’t try to comply with them. They are Williams v Rhodes, McCarthy v Briscoe, and Storer v Brown. The candidates or parties who didn’t try to petition are the Socialist Labor Party in Ohio 1968, Eugene McCarthy in Texas 1976, and Gus Hall in California 1972.