On May 4, the Maine Republican Party amended its bylaws to say that the party chooses to nominate by old-fashioned plurality primary elections. The same day, it filed a federal lawsuit, saying it has a freedom of association right to nominate according to its own desires, and that it desires not to use ranked-choice voting. Maine Republican Party v Dunlap, 1:18cv-179.

If this lawsuit were to win, then logically the Maine Green Party and the Maine Libertarian Party could also insist that they prefer to nominate by convention. Letting small qualified parties nominate by convention would be a huge advantage to those parties. Under current law, the primary petitions are so difficult, neither party is able to run more than a handful of candidates. This year, there are only about six Maine Greens running for a partisan office (all for legislature), and only one Libertarian (also legislature).

The case is assigned to Judge Jon David Levy, an Obama appointee. The Republican Party will face a severe problem getting injunctive relief, because the lawsuit and the bylaws change were made so close to the June 12 primary. But eventually the party might win declaratory relief. Even if the party did obtain injunctive relief, ranked choice voting would still go ahead for the other three qualified parties, Democratic, Green, and Libertarian.

The Hawaii legislature adjourned on May 3. The bills to remove the petition blank for signers to add part of their Social Security number failed to pass. The Senate had passed SB 462 last year, with no opposition. But the House never took it up. There was a House bill, HB 294, to do the same thing, but it never moved.

On May 3, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed SB 350. It eases the definition of “political party”. The new law says it is a group that polled 2.5% for any statewide race, at either of the last two elections. The old law required a vote of 2.5% for Governor in midterm years, and 2.5% for President in presidential years.

Under the old law, almost every minor party in the United States would have gone off the Oklahoma ballot in presidential years. The only third parties that have polled as much as 2.5% for President in the nation in the last 90 years have been the American Party in 1968, the Reform Party in 1996, the Green Party in 2000, and the Libertarian Party in 2016.

Going off the ballot in Oklahoma is a special problem, because the petition requirement to get on the ballot (a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote) is very severe. That petition cost the Libertarian Party $100,000 in 2015-2016. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for the news.