On January 7, a Texas state trial court in Houston ordered that George Powell’s name be added to the Democratic primary ballot in a judicial race. Powell had been told that he should pay $1,500 filing fee to the party in order to be on the ballot, and he did so. Then the Democratic Party rejected his application because the actual amount of the fee was $2,500. The court said the party accepted and cashed his check, and he had relied on the party’s statement that the fee was $1,500, so it is too late to exclude him. See this story.

Last year California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed non-charter cities and counties to use Ranked Choice Voting for their own elections. Michael Feinstein has this op-ed at Fox & Hounds Daily, saying Newsom’s veto was a mistake.

On January 7, the Wisconsin government committee on presidential primary nominations announced the names of 14 Democrats and one Republican who will appear automatically on the presidential primary ballots. Anyone not listed must petition to be on a presidential primary ballot. The petition requires 8,000 signatures, with at least 1,000 from each U.S. House district. The period for collecting signatures runs from January 7 to January 28. The primaries are in April. Any registered voter may sign.

The only name on the Republican Party ballot, without the need for a petition, is President Donald Trump. The fourteen Democrats are: Mike Bennet, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Deval Patrick, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang.

The law says the committee must choose “all candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the
United States.” The committee, in my opinion, did not follow the law when it excluded all Republicans except President Trump. See section 8.12 of the Wisconsin election law.