On August 23, David Koch, who was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1980, died. See this New York Times story. He was 79, and died of prostate cancer, the same disease that killed David Bergland (the 1984 Libertarian nominee) earlier this year.

Back in 1980, when the Libertarian Party nominated Koch, ballot access for president was more difficult than it is today. Yet the Libertarian Party national ticket got on the ballot in all states plus D.C. in 1980. That was the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, had ever got on the ballot in all jurisdictions in the entire history of government-printed ballots, since 1892. That feat was possible only because David Koch was willing to spend the money to pay for ballot access petitioning.

George Wallace in 1968 had appeared on the ballot of all 50 states, but he did not qualify in the District of Columbia, which at the time required a petition of 5% of the registered voters. Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party in 1948 failed to get on the ballot in Illinois, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Robert La Follette of the Progressive Party in 1924 failed to get on the ballot in Louisiana. Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Party in 1912 failed to get on in Oklahoma. Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party, in his five runs for president, never got on a government-printed ballot in North Carolina (although North Carolina back then accepted privately-printed ballots, so Debs did receive votes in North Carolina).

This Daily Beast interview with former U.S. Senator and former Governor Lincoln Chafee says he would be open to being the Libertarian Party presidential nominee.

Minnesota law requires independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, to obtain signatures on a state form that says the signers “do not intend to vote” in the upcoming primary. On August 21, the Minnesota Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit against that language. Libertarian Party of Minnesota v Choi, 0:19cv-2312. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty, a Reagan appointee. Here is the Complaint.

The law is especially senseless in the case of presidential petitions. Minnesota’s next presidential primary will be held on March 3, 2020. The petition for presidential candidates in the general election can only be circulated in the period May through August 18. The 2020 primary is over by then, so the language literally seems to refer to the 2024 presidential primaries, although no one thinks that is what it really means.

The lawsuit asks for relief for petitions for all office, not just president. Petitions for office other than president must be circulated in a two-week period in May, and the Minnesota primary for other office is in August. It seems unreasonable to expect any voter to know in May whether he or she will be voting in the August primary, before the list of candidates running in the August primary is known.