Delegates to the Oklahoma Libertarian Party state convention have voted 17-13 for a closed primary for 2020. In Oklahoma, the election law lets each party decide for itself whether to let independents vote in the primary. Thanks to Chris Powell for this news.
The New York Times has this story about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on December 6 to hear Carney v Adams, the case over whether Delaware state court judges can be confined to registered Republicans and Democrats. It is astounding that the state claims that its policy is “balanced”, when over 20% of all registered voters are barred from consideration. Thanks to Ron Paulinski for the link.
President Donald Trump declined a chance to run in the American Independent Party presidential primary for 2020. The party invited him, and he was made aware of the offer through a discussion with one of his sons. In 2016 the AIP had nominated him in the general election, and in November 2016 his name was on the California ballot with the label, “Republican, American Independent.”
On November 5, 2019, the voters of Virginia’s 30th House district elected a write-in candidate. Nick Freitas, who was the incumbent, received 14,694 write-ins. His only opponent, Ann Ridgeway, the Democrat, who was the only name printed on the ballot, received 11,011.
Freitas tried to be on the Republican primary ballot in June 2019, but he was kept off due to a paperwork problem. Virginia doesn’t permit write-ins in primaries, so he couldn’t win the Republican nomination via write-in votes. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
On December 5, three of the five County Commissioners for Transylvania County, North Carolina, said they are changing their registration from Republican to independent. They are David Guice, Mike Hawkins, and Page Lemel. See this story.
Hawkins and Lemel are up for re-election in 2020, so if they intend to run for another term, they will need a difficult petition to get on the ballot, 4% of the number of registered voters.
The other two commissioners continue to be registered Republicans. Thanks to David Gillespie for the link.
