On July 1, the Eighth Circuit issued an eight-page opinion in Moore v Thurston, 18-1382. This is the case filed in 2014 against the Arkansas March deadline for non-presidential candidates. After the case won, the legislature changed the deadline to May 1. But, oddly, they still appealed to the Eighth Circuit, hoping to get a ruling that the U.S. District Court decision should be erased.

The Eighth Circuit declined to erase the U.S. District Court decision. Although the case became moot once the legislature improved the deadline, and although decisions in moot cases are sometimes vacated, in this case the U.S. District Court decision will not be vacated. The Eighth Circuit wrote, “Independent candidates and voters have repeatedly – and successfully – challenged Arkansas’s ballot-access requirements. We thus conclude that the public interest is best served by a substantial body of judicial precedents limiting the burden that those requirements may place on candidates’ and voters’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.”

On June 28, the Arkansas Libertarian Party submitted 18,667 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. The party’s goal is 10,000 valid signatures. The law required 10,000 signatures between 2007 and 2018, but in 2019 the number was raised to 26,745 (3% of the last gubernatorial vote). The party has a lawsuit pending against the new petition requirement. If the party wins the case, it is extremely likely that it will be recognized once again. The hearing was on June 4. The decision on whether to enjoin the new law is expected soon.

On June 28, New Hampshire Representative Max Abramson of Seabrook said he is changing his registration from Republican to Libertarian. He had made a similar change in May 2016. While he was in the legislature then, he changed from Republican to Libertarian, but did not run for re-election. Instead he became the Libertarian nominee for Governor in 2016. He polled enough votes to give the Libertarian Party qualified status, which lasted until the 2018 election.

Some time afterwards, he changed his registration back to Republican, and was elected to the House again in 2018, as one of the three Republican representatives from the Rockingham 20 district.

He now says he had given the Republican Party one more chance to show that it is a small government party, but that the 2019 session of the legislature has disillusioned him about the Republican Party.