On October 16, the North Dakota Libertarian Party submitted its petition to regain qualified party status. This is only the second Libertarian Party petition drive that has been completed this year; the first one was the Arkansas party petition.
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The Green Party won three seats in today’s Canadian Parliamentary election. At the previous election, in 2015, they had only won one seat. It is not easy for a smaller party to win any seats, because Canada does not have proportional representation.
The Green Party won a seat in New Brunswick in today’s election, their first federal parliamentary victory outside of British Columbia. Their other two wins were in British Columbia.
On October 9, U.S. District Court Judge Emily C. Marks issued a four-page order in Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, strongly urging both sides to talk to each other in hopes that the case can be mediated without the need for a judicial opinion. This is the case in which the Libertarian Party challenges the policy of the state that the qualified parties receive a free list of the registered voters, but unqualified parties must pay approximately $35,000 for the list.
The precedents are entirely on the side of the Libertarian Party, and in 1970 the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed the decision of a 3-judge U.S. District Court in New York, that if a state gives a free list to the qualified parties, it must also give it free to unqualified parties that are trying to petition to get on the ballot. That case was Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller.
HR 51, the bill to make almost all of Washington, D.C., a state, now has 221 co-sponsors. Here is the list of co-sponsors. All are Democrats.
The Associated Press is now reporting that Don Blankenship will seek the Constitution Party presidential nomination. See this story.