The Pennsylvania Green Party statewide petition is circulating. The petition lists Elizabeth Scroggin for president, and Neal Gale for vice-president. They are stand-ins, because the party doesn’t know who its actual candidates will be until July. Pennsylvania law allows stand-ins.
The Ohio Green Party has chosen stand-in candidates for purposes of petitioning for president and vice-president in Ohio. The presidential stand-in is Philena Farley. The vice-presidential stand-in is Cynthia Matthews. Ohio law lets independent candidates withdraw, and then the committee sponsoring the petition may replace the withdrawn candidates. The Green Party won’t know who its actual candidates are until its national convention in July.
On March 3, the Utah Senate Government Operations Committee passed HB 70 by a unanimous vote. It deletes the straight-ticket device. The bill had already passed the House.
Texas held its primaries for president and all other partisan office on March 3. According to this article, only 25.2% of registered voters cast a vote. By contrast, in the March 2016 primary, over 30% of registered voters voted.
Texas is the only state that won’t let primary voters sign for a new party or an independent candidate, if the voter voted in a primary. The low primary turnout will be somewhat helpful for minor party and independent candidate petitions this year.
The Libertarian and Green Parties are already on the Texas ballot.
Slightly more voters in 2020 voted in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary. Texas has an open primary. Any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot.
The Gloucester Daily Times has this newspaper story about the increase in Libertarian Party registration in Massachusetts.
