The Alliance Party will hold a presidential convention remotely on April 25.
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On April 8, three Massachusetts major party candidates filed a lawsuit in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, asking that the number of signatures for primary petitions be reduced due to the health crisis. They are Kevin O’Connor, a Republican running for U.S. Senate; Robbie Goldstein, a Democrat running for U.S. House; and Melissa Bower Smith, a Democrat running for the state house. See this story.
The case is Goldstein v Galvin, SJ2020-150. Justice Cypher has referred the case to the full court. Here is the Emergency Petition_MA_SJC for Relief.
The Independent Party, which is ballot-qualified in Connecticut for most federal and state offices, has affiliated itself with the Alliance Party. See the party’s web page here.
On April 8, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam moved the non-presidential primary from June 9 to June 23. This automatically extends the non-presidential independent and minor party candidate petition deadline, because the law says those petitions are due on primary day.
The order has no effect on the presidential petition deadline, which continues to be August 21.
National Review has this article by Law Professor Joshua Kleinfeld and Rachel Kleinfeld, advocating that at least this year, states should let all voters cast postal ballots. This idea is not original, but given that National Review is considered to be in alignment with the Republican Party generally, and given President Trump’s hostility to postal ballots, this article is significant. Thanks to Ilya Shapiro for the link.