On August 31, Arkansas independent candidate (for Lieutenant Governor in 2014) Mark Moore a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Martin v Moore, 17-156.  The case is about the March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates.  Moore basically won the case in the Eighth Circuit earlier this year.  The Eighth Circuit said that the deadine is too early, unless the state can demonstrate that it must have such an earlier deadline in order to have time to check the signatures.  The Eighth Circuit remanded the case for more fact-finding to the U.S. District Court.

In response to that, Arkansas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal, arguing that the deadline is constitutional regardless of what any more facts might show.  Then, Moore filed this brief, saying the U.S. Supreme Court should not take this case.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Husted v A. Philip Randolph Institute on Wednesday, November 8.  This is the case over whether Ohio is purging voters from the voting rolls too frequently.  The lower court had ruled against the Ohio Secretary of State.  Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.

This Albany Times-Union story explains that the Reform Party is letting independents vote in its primaries on September 12.  It imples that this has never happened before in New York, although some years ago there were some Independence Party primaries for district and local office that also permitted independents to vote.  Thanks to several people for the link.