For its first year ever on the North Carolina ballot, the Green Party is running one candidate for U.S. House, one candidate for the state house, and two for county office. There are no executive statewide offices up in North Carolina this year, and there is no U.S. Senate race either. The U.S. House candidate is running in the 13th district; the state legislative candidate is running for 66th district. The two county offices are in Forsyth County and Mecklenburg County.
Capitol Fax, an Illinois politics blog, here says that the Illinois Republican Party will not challenge the Libertarian Party statewide petition, nor the Conservative Party gubernatorial petition.
On July 2, the Massachusetts Supreme Court unanimously upheld the current deadline for registering to vote, 20 days before an election. See this story. The lower state court had invalidated it, but the Supreme Court reversed. UPDATE: here is the 49-page opinion in Chelsea Cooperative v Secretary of the Commonwealth, SJC-12435. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The New Mexico Constitution Party has submitted a petition to regain its party status. It is the only party that submitted such a petition this year, and the deadline has now passed.
Other qualified parties in New Mexico are Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Independent American, and Better for America.
On July 1, Mexico held a presidential and a congressional election. The presidency was won by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He was the nominee of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), a new party; and also the Labor Party, which has existed since 1990; and the Social Encounter Party, which has existed since 2006. The three parties named their coalition “Together We’ll Make History” (Juntos Haremos Historia).
Mexico election laws are superior to the laws of the United States in several ways: (1) parties are permitted to jointly nominate the same candidate; (2) access to presidential debates is far more inclusive; (3) election administration is carried out by a non-partisan body; (4) for president, whoever wins the most popular votes is elected. Also Mexico uses proportional representation for its congressional elections.
