On July 30, Michael Polelle, an independent voter in Florida, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case against closed primaries. Florida has closed primaries. Polelle argues that the U.S. Constitution requires that he be allowed to vote in partisan primaries. Here is his cert petition.
The case is Polelle v Byrd, 25-147.
On August 5, various Libertarian Party members seeking non-partisan local offices in Kansas, Michigan and Washington qualified for run-offs. See this Independent Political Report story.
On August 6, the Logan County, Ohio Board of Elections voted to keep independent candidate Ben Stahler on the ballot. He is running for President of the Bellefontaine city council. He was challenged on the basis that he is not a true independent. He had attended a Republican Party dinner on March 31, 2025, the day before he filed his petition to be on the ballot as an independent. See this story.
Ohio has the nation’s most arbitrary law on who can be an independent candidate. It is common for challengers to cite personal behavior. If Ohio had registration by party, the law wouldn’t be so arbitrary. But the Ohio voter registration form does not ask about partisan affiliation or the lack of it.
On August 6, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman, an Obama appointee, upheld the discriminatory Texas law on filing fee distribution. When a candidate of a party that nominates by primary, the filing fee paid by that candidate goes to that candidate’s party. But when a candidate of a party that nominates by convention pays a filing fee, the government keeps the money.
Here is the decision. Bilyeu v Esparza, w.d., 1:21cv-1089.
With Democratic members of the Texas legislature recently hitting the interstate road to try to stop US House redistricting legislation, I thought this was an interesting, fairly concise history of the practice from the Texas Tribune.
