On July 16, the Oklahoma State Board of Elections held its usual drawing to determine the order of candidates on the November 2020 ballot. The Republican Party won, and all Republican nominees will be listed first. The Libertarian Party nominees will be second, and the Democrats on the third line. Below them will be the independent candidates.
The Texas Republican Party tried to have its virtual state convention on Thursday, July 16, but could not handle the credentialing process. The party will try again on Saturday and Sunday, July 18-19. See this story. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
In fairness to the Republican Party, it had very little time to learn how to do an electronic convention. The city of Houston forced the city to abandon its in-person convention shortly before the scheduled date. The Texas Supreme Court sided with the city. The party could have held its in-person convention in another city but that would also have been a last-minute change.
On July 17, the Pennsylvania Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties appealed their ballot access case to the Third Circuit. Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania v Wolf, 20-2481. The issue is the difficulty of petitioning during the health crisis, and also the August 3 petition deadline. The U.S. District Court had denied all relief. The U.S. District Court admitted much petitioning time had been lost, but inexplicably did not even extend the deadline.
The South Carolina independent petition deadline has been extended from July 15 to July 20. See this notice from the State Election Commission’s website. The signatures are due by noon on the deadline date.
Congressman Justin Amash, the first Libertarian Party member of congress, is not likely to run for re-election, according to this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
