The Utah election code says that a presidential primary will be held in 2020, but it doesn’t yet specify a date. Utah used caucuses in 2016. State Senator Curtis Bramble says he is about to introduce a bill to set the date in the first week of March. Thanks to FrontloadingHQ for this news.
On February 19, attorneys for Alabama government filed this brief in Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, m.d., 2:19cv-69. This is the case in which the Libertarian Party challenges the state policy of giving a free list of the registered voters to the qualified parties, but no other parties.
The case is based on a 1970 cased from New York, Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller, which was summarily affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. That case, filed by the Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Labor Party, said it is unconstitutional for a state to refuse to give a list of the registered voters to groups that are petitioning to get on the ballot, if the same state gives a free list to the parties that are already on the ballot.
When the Socialist Workers and Socialist Labor Parties filed this case in early 1970 against New York, they had not already petitioned for a place on the ballot. At the time New York only permitted petitioning in six weeks in late August, September and early October of the election year. The Socialist Workers and Socialist Labor Parties won the case in June 1970, before they were even permitted to begin petitioning. Because they obtained the list in time for their 1970 petition drives, the list was used by their petitioners.
But the attorneys for the Alabama misread the case, and believe the court only ordered relief for parties that had already finished their petition drive.
The Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Labor Party had petitioned in New York city for Mayor in 1969, and their petitions failed. When they filed the case, they had last been able to get on the ballot in 1968.
The Illinois bill to reduce the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, which had already been introduced in the Senate, is now also introduced in the House. The House bill is HB 3535, introduced by Representative Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville). Like SB 141, it lowers the number of general election signatures so that they match the number required for the same office in the primary.
The primary petition requirements differ for each party that has a primary, so the bill makes the general election requirement the same as for the party that has the higher primary requirement.
On February 22, the Minnesota Democratic and Republican Parties notified the Secretary of State that they want the 2020 presidential primary to be on March 3. The law that created Minnesota’s presidential primary, passed in 2016, gave the qualified parties the option to choose a different date, if they agreed with each on the alternate date. But instead they settled on March 3.
Some cities in Ohio hold partisan elections for local office in November 2019. The primary for these elections is May 7. Two Libertarians have filed to run for these offices in their own party’s primary. Brandon Bobbitt is running for Elyria City Council, and Rob Bender is running for Reynoldsburg City Council.
The Lorain and Franklin County Election Boards have accepted these filings, and the challenge period has passed. Both candidates are listed on the election board lists of certified candidates. This seems to confirm that the party is still ballot-qualified in Ohio, and will be in 2020.
