The New York State Court of Appeals, the highest state court in the state, will hear an appeal on whether Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright will be on the June 23 primary ballot. She is running for re-election. She failed to submit a cover sheet with her primary petition, but the state trial court and the mid-level state court put her on the ballot anyway, given the health crisis and the fact that part of the time she was in quarantine.
Even though the national convention of the Constitution Party chose Don Blankenship for president at its national convention earlier this month, the New Mexico Constitution Party has nominated Sheila “Samm” Tittle for president. She sought the presidential nomination at the national convention, but was defeated there, placing fourth in the final round.
The New Mexico Constitution Party is ballot-qualified. It will go off the ballot unless it polls at least one-half of 1% for president in November 2020. Tittle is not likely to poll that well. In 2012, when she was an independent presidential candidate, she was on the ballot in two states and polled 2,559 votes in the entire nation.
The Virginia Constitution Party, which is not ballot-qualified, is also considering nominating Tittle, but it has not made a nomination yet. Tittle is listed as a plaintiff in the party’s ballot access lawsuit, but Virginia allows presidential stand-ins, so Tittle is in the case as a stand-in, just as the Green Party also has stand-ins for president and vice-president listed as co-plaintiffs.
This post has been amended since it was first posted, concerning Virginia.
On May 18, a Virginia state trial court in Richmond cut the number of signatures for candidates for Mayor from 500 to 150. The judge also extended the petition deadline from June 9 to June 23. See this story.
On May 14, the Arizona Supreme Court removed Republican candidate Kim Owens from the August 4 primary ballot, so that the Republicans will only have two nominees for the three seats, unless Owens or some other Republican can obtain at least 6,663 write-ins in the primary. Branch v Owens, cv-20-0134. Thanks to Richard Grayson for this news. Here is the order.
on May 19, the Second Circuit issued an order, agreeing with the U.S. District Court that the New York state government must hold the June 23 presidential primary. The three judges say they will explain their reasoning later. New York was already set to hold its primary for office other than president on June 23. Thanks to Joe Burns for this news.
