On May 29, Colorado House Bill 19-1278 was signed into law. It increases the number of signatures for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, for all offices except president. The statewide non-presidential petitions rise from 1,000 signatures to 7,000, and there is now a congressional district distribution requirement for those statewide petitions.
On May 31, both sides in Soltysik v Padilla submitted papers to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles about the upcoming trial. The issue is the law that won’t let members of unqualified parties have their party labels on the ballot, when they run for congress or partisan state office. Members of qualified parties do have their labels printed on the ballot. The ACLU, which is handling this case for the plaintiff (a member of the Socialist Party) proposes that all discovery be finished by October 11, 2019. The state does not want discovery to be complete until March 25, 2020, but if the state’s schedule is accepted, even if the case wins, the decision will be too late for the 2020 election. The case was first filed in 2014.
Lance Lehmann, a registered member of the Libertarian Party, placed first on June 5 in the election for Rapid City, South Dakota Board of Aldermen, ward 4. No one got a majority, so he will be in a runoff on June 26. Thanks to Nate Watkins for this news. Rapid City is the second-largest city in South Dakota.
We are sorry to announce that David Bergland has died at the age of 83. He had been battling prostate cancer.
Bergland was the 1984 presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party. He was also the 1976 candidate for Vice-President. He was also a Libertarian candidate for California Attorney General (1974), California State Senate (1978), and US Senator from California (1980).
Bergland was the author of Libertarianism in One Lesson.
h/t Mark Hinkle
Richard Winger is on vacation until June 12. Blog posts will be limited and infrequent until then. If readers have any breaking news that should be posted, please send to Eric Garris at egarris2@antiwar.com.
