Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has endorsed the idea that Massachusetts should permit unregistered individuals to register on election day. See this story. There are multiple bills pending in the state legislature to enact this idea.
On January 25, U.S. District Court Judge James M. Moody, Jr., issued an eight-page opinion in Moore v Martin, explaining why the Arkansas March 1 petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates is unconstitutional. The Judge had already determined that the deadline is unconstitutional on December 15, 2017, but only now has he issued an explanation.
The Freedom Socialist Party almost never tries to place candidates for partisan office on the ballot in any state. But it will work to put its nominee for U.S. Senate in Washington state, Steve Hoffman, on the 2018 primary ballot. Hoffman is free to get on the ballot without any petition if he pays a $1,740 filing fee, but instead the party will try to use the petition in lieu of the filing fee.
Because Washington is a top-two state, it is virtually certain that Hoffman will not appear on the November ballot, because the incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator, Maria Cantwell, and some Republican, will place first and second in the August primary.
The Ohio Libertarian Party now has approximately 81,000 signatures on its 2018 petition for party status. This is the largest number of signatures any minor party has collected in any state (not counting Americans Elect) since 2008, when the North Carolina Libertarians collected slightly over 100,000 signatures.
The Ohio drive needs 54,965 valid signatures. Ohio does not permit a party to submit a partial petition; all the signatures must be submitted in one turn-in. The party has been checking the validity of its petition and believes that it has almost 50,000 valid.
Assuming the Ohio Libertarian petition succeeds, this will be the first time that any group has completed the Ohio party petition since 2000, when both the Libertarian and Natural Law Parties did that petition. That year, 33,543 valid signatures were needed.
Six Georgia House members have introduced HB 680, which eliminates vote-counting machines now used all over the state that leave no paper audit trail. There are three Republican and three Democratic sponsors. The Republicans are Scot Turner, Sam Teasley, and Michael Caldwell; the Democrats are Scott Holcomb, Robert Trammell, and HOward Mosby. Thanks to Electionline for this news.
