The Kansas Democratic Party will hold a party-administered presidential primary on Saturday, May 2. Polling will be open from 10 am to 4 pm. There will be at least one polling place in each State Senate district. Ranked choice voting will be used. See this story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On June 11, a U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge upheld Arizona’s independent presidential petition requirement. De La Fuente v State, 2:16cv-2419. An independent presidential candidate needs more signatures in Arizona than a new party does. However, the Magistrate said this is not a violation of equal protection, because the petition deadline for independent presidential candidate petitions is much later than the deadline for new parties.
No independent presidential candidate has qualified in Arizona since 2008, and before that none had qualified since 1992. But the Magistrate said that this is not too important, because minor parties have been on the ballot in Arizona in all elections in this century. The Magistrate did not mention the language of the U.S. Supreme Court that said states must have adequate procedures for both new parties and independent candidates, and one does not substitute for the other.
The Magistrate did not mention any of the recent decisions that have struck down petition requirements approximately similar to Arizona’s. The Arizona independent petition requirement is approximately 1% of the number of registered voters, so it is almost identical to the Georgia requirement that the Eleventh Circuit struck down in 2013, and it is harder than the Michigan requirement that was enjoined last year. But no mention of the Georgia or Michigan decisions was made in the Magistrate’s opinion.
On June 10, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 2504. It makes it easier for a party to remain on the ballot. The old vote test was either 2% for Governor, or 5% for any statewide race. The new vote test is 2% for any statewide office at any of the last five elections. The bill has the effect of putting the Green Party on the ballot for 2020, because it polled over 2% for a few statewide races in 2016.
Unfortunately, the same bill imposes filing fees on the nominees of parties that nominate by convention, which includes all parties other than the Republican and Democratic Parties.
On June 9, the Florida Democratic Party adjourned its state meeting. The proposal to allow independent voters to vote in Democratic primaries did not pass, even though many leading Democrats had endorsed the idea.
On June 9, briefs on both sides were filed in the Georgia Libertarian Party ballot access case that challenges the requirements for parties that did not get 20% of the vote for president or governor in the last election to be able to run candidates for U.S. House. These procedures require a petition of 5% of the registered voters in the district. They are so difficult, they have existed since 1943, and have never been used by any party. No independent has complied with the law since 1964.
Both sides are seeking summary judgment. If the judge decides that either side has proved its case, she will either uphold the law or declare it unconstitutional. If she decides in favor of neither party, she will hold a trial. Here is the Libertarian Party brief.
