The Green Mountain Party is now a qualified party in Vermont. See this story. It is not associated with any political party outside Vermont.
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On December 18, Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski completely retired from judicial service. He had been appointed in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan. He wrote only one ballot access case during his career, Peta Lindsay v Debra Bowen, 750 F.3d 1061 (2014). The issue was whether it was lawful for California’s Secretary of State to exclude Peta Lindsay from the Peace & Freedom presidential primary ballot in 2012. Lindsay was age 27 and the U.S. Constitution says no one can serve as president who is under age 35.
During the oral argument, Kozinski asked if the Peace & Freedom Party would be permitted to ask the Secretary of State to place a dog on its presidential primary ballot.
California state courts at that time had already ruled that the Secretary of State must place any qualified party’s presidential nominee on the general election ballot, regardless of questions about their qualifications. Also, California had placed the Prohibition Party’s vice-presidential nominee on the ballot in 1892, and he was under age 35. And, California had permitted Linda Jenness, the 1972 Socialist Workers Party presidential nominee who was also underage, to be a declared write-in presidential candidates. These facts were in the record, but they did not merit mention in Kozinski’s opinion.
Kozinski ruled against voting rights for ex-felons in an Arizona case in 2010, Harvey v Brewer, 605 F.3d 1017. The panel he was on ruled unanimously that Arizona could require ex-felons to pay various fees and restitution amounts before they were permitted to register to vote, notwithstanding the 24th amendment which outlaws poll taxes.
Here is the list of individuals who have filed to run in Texas 2018 primaries for the Republican and Democratic Parties. No Democrat filed for Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8. This is a statewide partisan race, so any minor party nominee for that office is extremely likely to poll 5%, and thus gain or retain qualified party status. The Libertarian Party is the only other ballot-qualified party. It nominates by convention and a Libertarian is running for that judicial post. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
To use the list of Democratic and Republican candidates, note that all offices are in alphabetical order. To see the candidates for Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8, scroll down into the part of the alphabet with the letter “J”.
In 2016, Democrats nominated someone for each statewide post. As a result, the Libertarian Party barely kept its qualified status. It polled under 5% for all 2016 statewide races except Railroad Commissioner, for which it polled 5.28%. No Green statewide nominee in 2016 polled as much as 5%, so the Green Party went off the ballot.
This article in Russia Today describes ballot access requirements for the March 18, 2018 presidential election in Russia. Parties with parliamentary representatives are on the ballot automatically. Other parties need 100,000 signatures to place a presidential nominee on the ballot. Independent candidates need 300,000 signatures. The signatures are due January 31, which is 46 days before the election.
In the United States, the earliest independent presidential deadline is North Carolina’s deadline in late April. Independent candidates for statewide office in North Carolina in 2020 will need 70,666 signatures, if the law isn’t changed before 2020; and the deadline will be 197 days before the November 3, 2020 election. A lawsuit, Leifert v North Carolina State Board of Elections, m.d., 1:17cv-147, is pending that challenges the independent requirements.
New Jersey did not have a Lieutenant Governor until 2009, when the law was changed to create the office, and also to provide that candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a team in the general election.
However, unlike other states that require candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor to run as a team in November, New Jersey does not require gubernatorial candidates to have a running mate. In the November 2017 election, two of the seven gubernatorial candidates did not have a Lieutenant Governor partner, but the state still allowed these gubernatorial candidates to be on the November ballot. The two gubernatorial candidates without a running mate were the Constitution Party nominee, Matthew Riccardi; and independent candidate Gina Genovese, whose ballot label was “Reduce Property Taxes.” Genovese had intended Derel Stroud to be her running mate, but he did not file the needed petition.