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.

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.

On August 4, the voters who supported Cornel West’s ballot position in North Carolina filed this brief in their ballot access case. Although the U.S. District Court had put Cornel West’s party on the ballot last year, the case is still alive because West and his supporters are seeking a federal court decision that the State Board of Elections last year violated the U.S. Constitution when it kept his party off the ballot even though it had enough valid signatures.

The purpose of getting a declaratory judgment in this case is to avoid the same problem in future elections. Ortiz v North Carolina State Board of Elections, e.d., 5:24cv-420.