On June 5, the New York State Senate passed S5462. No one voted against it. It lets candidates who have the nomination of a minor party remove themselves from the November ballot, if they had sought the nomination of a major party but lost the major party primary. Under current law, if a smaller qualified party nominates someone who is also seeking a major party nomination but fails to get it, that candidate is stuck on the November ballot against their wish (unless they do some very arcane things, such as get the minor party’s nomination for a judicial post).

Howard Schultz has never declared he would be an independent presidential candidate, but he had said he might, and he had been making public appearances earlier this year. However, he stopped in May 2019, and now has said he stopped because he had medical problems, which are being resolved. See this story. He indicated he still might run, but won’t take any action until September 2019 at the earliest.

On June 12, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed SB 870, the National Popular Vote bill.