The new North Carolina ballot access law for parties, SB 656, takes effect on January 1, 2018. It says that any party that “had a candidate nominated by that group on the general election ballot of at least 70% of the states in the prior Presidential election” is a qualified party in North Carolina, once it proves that it was on in that many states.

The State Board of Elections has now created a form for use by a group to prove that its presidential nominee was on the ballot in at least 35 states in the preceding election. The form must be completed by state election officials in each of the 35 or more states. The Green Party, which will be the first party to take advantage of the new law, placed Jill Stein on the ballot in 44 states in 2016. But now the burden is on the Green Party of North Carolina to get this form filled out by state election officials in other states. Here is the form.

Many state election officials will probably be surprised to get a letter from the Green Party, asking that the form must be filled out and returned to the Green Party, which then will forward it to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The form must be notarized. All this work seems unnecessary, because the Federal Election Commission, and also the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, both publish books that would prove that Jill Stein was on the ballot in at least 44 states.

Texas requires parties that are not on the ballot, but which hope to petition to get onto the ballot, to inform the Secretary of State, no later than January 2 of any election year. This law is perhaps unconstitutional, but no lawsuit has ever been filed against it. The law has only existed since 1993.

For 2018 so far, the only unqualified party that has filed the notice of intent is the Texas Independent Party.

In 2016, the national Democratic Party set up a “Unity Reform Commission”, which is tasked with making suggested changes to future presidential nomination rules for the party. The Unity Reform Commission is instructed to issue its ideas before January 1, 2018. The ideas will then go to the Rules & Bylaws Committee of the national party. Possible changes include (1) recommending that independents be allowed to vote in all Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses; (2) ending or limiting the number of “super-delegates” (delegates who are not elected, but serve by virtue of their position); (3) encouraging more of the caucus states to switch to presidential primaries instead. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.