This is the first year in which it has been possible for an independent presidential candidate to get on the Oklahoma ballot without a petition. Instead they can qualify with a $35,000 filing fee. On July 15, the deadline, three independent presidential candidates paid their fee and submitted a list of presidential elector candidates. They are Brock Pierce, Kanye West, and Jade Simmons.

Here is the website for Jade Simmons. She lives in Texas. The website says she will only try to get on the ballot in states that don’t permit write-ins for president.

On July 15, U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., an Obama appointee, cut the number of signatures for minor party and independent candidates in Virginia for federal office (there are no state offices up in Virginia in 2020). The presidential petition is now 2,500 signatures. The U.S. Senate petition is now 3,500 signatures. The U.S. House requirement is 350 signatures. Constitution Party of Virginia v Virginia State Board of Elections, 3:20cv-349. Without this relief, president would have been 5,000; U.S. Senate 10,000; U.S. House 1,000.

Here is the opinion. The relief only extends to the plaintiffs, which are the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Independent Green Parties and their plaintiff-candidates.

The presidential petition remains the same, August 21. The new deadline for congressional candidates is August 1, at 7 p.m. That is a Saturday. The old deadline was in June. Thanks to Tina Rockett for this news.

The Arkansas Secretary of State has rejected three statewide initiative petitions for the same reason, that the sponsors had a tiny wording error in their certification about the paid circulators. The law says the sponsors are supposed to certify that the paid circulators passed a criminal background check. Instead the sponsors submitted a statement that they had checked the criminal histories of all the circulators. See this story.

The three initiatives deal with these subjects: (1) a nonpartisan redistricting commission; (2) a top-four election system; (3) gambling. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.

The Secretary of State had not yet checked the validity of the signatures.