On June 30, the Texas Secretary of State filed a reply brief in Bilyeu v Esparza, w.d., 1:21cv-1089.  The issue is the Texas law on how filing fees are handled.  When a major party candidate pays a filing fee, the money is given to that candidate’s party.  But when a minor party candidate pays a filing fee, the government keeps the money.  The Libertarian Party argues this violates equal protection.

The state says equal protection doesn’t apply because major parties and minor parties are not situated similarly.  The state says major parties have more voter support than minor parties.  Of course, this is generally true all over the nation.  If this theory were sound, than no minor party could ever win an equal protection lawsuit.  Here is the state’s brief.

On June 8, Dan Osborn said he will again be an independent candidate in Nebraska for U.S. Senate in 2026.  In 2024 he was an independent candidate in a two-person race and got 46.52%.

The New York Times published a story on its website on July 7, “It’s Hard to Create a Third Party, Even for Elon Musk”.  Unlike any other news stories on this subject, it mentions the worst ballot access law in the United States.  It says, when discussing ballot access laws for Congress, “The most restrictive laws are in Georgia, where candidates outside the two major parties must gather 27,000 signatures from their district.  This hurdle has kept third-party congressional candidates from being on a general election ballot since the law was enacted in 1943.”

The story is probably behind a pay wall for most readers, but here is the link.