On December 9, the Arizona Libertarian Party filed this cert petition in the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona Libertarian Party v Hobbs. This is the case over ballot access for members of a small qualified party that is not in its first four years on the ballot. In 2015, the Republican majority in the Arizona legislature passed a law that singles out the Libertarian Party and makes it virtually impossible for any Libertarian to get himself or herself on the Libertarian primary ballot. The same law did not apply to the Green Party, or to any party that is in its first four years on the ballot. UPDATE: the case number is 19-757. The state’s response is due January 13, 2020.

Because Arizona forces all qualified parties to nominate by primary, this meant that no Arizona Libertarians could get on the ballot for congress or partisan state office in both 2016 and 2018. Yet the Ninth Circuit upheld it earlier this year. The U.S. Supreme Court has never before had a case on petitions for access to a primary ballot.

On December 9, the New York Libertarian and Green Parties held a joint conference to say they will sue if New York state goes ahead and makes the definition of “political party” more stringent. See this story.

UPDATE: see this New York Daily News story.

Mississippi elected all its state officers on November 5, 2019. Independent candidate Angela Cockerham was elected to the House, 96th district, by 4,841 votes to 3,585 for her Democratic opponent. Cockerham had been elected as a Democrat in each of the four previous elections. She is the new chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Another state house incumbent who ran as an independent, Steve Holland, was narrowly defeated by his Democratic opponent. Holland received 2,538 and his Democratic opponent received 2,773.