On July 7, the Arkansas Secretary of State determined that the Libertarian Party’s petition for party status is valid. The party is now free to nominate by convention for its 2018 nominees. The party is now on the 2018 ballot in 39 states plus D.C. (although in Georgia, it is only on for statewide office, not district or county office; and in Connecticut, it is on for some but not all offices).

The eleven states in which the party is not on the 2018 ballot are Alabama, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. Of those eleven states, three of them have a ballot-qualified party other than just the Republican and Democratic Parties. They are New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island. The Green Party is on in Ohio and the Moderate Party is on in Rhode Island. New York has eight qualified parties, including Green, Conservative, Working Families, Independence, Reform, and Women’s Equality.

The Colorado Secretary of State has posted the July 1, 2017 voter registration data. The percentages for each party are: Democratic 31.49%; Republican 31.25%; Libertarian 1.18%; Green .34%; Constitution .32%; Unity .03%; independents and others 35.40%.

In November 2016, the percentages were: Democratic 31.80%; Republican 31.51%; Libertarian 1.16%; Green .35%; Constitution .30%; Unity .02%; independents and others 34.86%.

Unfortunately, when the July 1 2017 Ballot Access News was being prepared for postal mailing, in approximately 30 instances, the middle page was accidentally omitted from the envelope. It appears these faulty mailings went to California. If you happen to be a print subscriber, and your issue was missing pages three and four, please e-mail richardwinger@yahoo.com and I will send the missing page.

The contents of that page were an article about the bill moving the California primary from June to March, amended to apply to midterm year primaries as well as presidential years; an article about the lawsuit in which a North Carolina independent voter is suing to overturn the law that says all members of boards of elections must be members of the two largest parties; an article about the United Utah Party lawsuit against the early deadline for a new party; news about the further demise of straight-ticket devices; an article about HR 3057, the bill in congress for proportional representation; U.S. Supreme Court news; a book review of “Suffragette – My own story” by Emmeline Pankhurst; an article about the Texas sore loser law as applied to presidential candidates being upheld; an article about new research on whether top-two systems help moderates; and further legislative news.