A U.S. District Court in North Carolina will hear arguments in Kopitke v Bell on Thursday, November 7, at 2 p.m. This is the case that challenges various ballot access laws relating to independent candidates, including a challenge to the early March petition deadline for independent candidate petitions. The case is e.d., 7:19cv-164. The March petition deadline, as applied to independent presidential candidates, is obviously unconstitutional under Anderson v Celebrezze, which in 1983 struck down Ohio’s March 20 petition deadline for independent presidential candidates. The North Carolina deadline is March 3, easily the earliest in the nation. The next-earliest is the Texas May deadline, which is also under court attack.

Until 2017, the North Carolina independent petition deadline was in mid-May. The 2017 session of the legislature moved it to early March.

This extensive Politico story gathers the evidence that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to weaken or destroy the Working Families Party, even though he denies this. The article does not mention that there is reason to believe that the Governor will propose a bill next year to make the definition of “party” much more restrictive. The proposed bill is rumored to change the definition of a party from a group that polled 50,000 votes for Governor in the last election, to a group that polled 300,000 votes for Governor. That would leave New York with only two qualified parties, Republican and Democratic.

The Socialist Party USA is holding a national convention in Newark, New Jersey, October 25-26. On October 26, it nominated Howie Hawkins for president. Hawkins is also seeking the Green Party nomination, but he pledged that he will run in November as the Socialist nominee, even if he fails to get the Green Party nomination.

Hawkins defeated Elijah Manley by a ratio of approximately 3:2. Manley is under age 35 and lives in Florida. Hawkins lives in Syracuse, New York.