On October 4, the plaintiffs who are fighting Montana’s ban on out-of-state circulators for initiatives filed this 31-page brief in U.S. District Court. The case is Pierce v Stapleton, 6:18cv-63. The plaintiffs also challenge the Montana law banning paying circulators on a per-signature basis.
The Los Angeles Times has this editorial, urging California Secretary of State not to appeal the U.S. District Court decision that enjoined the state’s new presidential tax returns-ballot bill. The editorial says an appeal is a waste of public resources.
As of 4 pm California time, the state has not filed any notice of appeal. The U.S. District Court decision had been released on October 2.
The Approval Voting Party is now a ballot-qualified party in Colorado, because it now has more than 1,000 registered members. The Secretary of State’s web page doesn’t have the November 1 2019 registration tally up yet, but the October 1 2019 tally shows the party had 989 registrants, and the party knows that it is now over 1,000.
Colorado now has seven ballot-qualified parties. The others are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Unity. Thanks to Bill Hammons for this news.
Even though the California Secretary of State has said he will appeal the order of the U.S. District Court, enjoining the tax returns-ballot law, he still hasn’t filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit. This is surprising, because time is urgent. The presidential primary ballot printing will begin later this year.
On October 2, New Hampshire said the presidential primary filing dates in 2020 will be October 30-November 15, 2019. Only the Republican and Democratic Parties will have a presidential primary in 2020. The Libertarian Party would have had one if its gubernatorial candidate in 2018 had polled as much as 4%, but she did not poll that high.
The New Hampshire presidential primary date is tentatively set for February 11.
It is very easy for a candidate to qualify for the New Hampshire presidential primary. No petition is needed, and no showing is needed that the candidate is discussed in the news media. The only requirement is payment of $1,000. New Hampshire usually has the most candidates on its major party presidential primaries of any state. Here is a news story about the announcement. Thanks to Daryl Perry for the link.
