The Charlotte Observer, daily newspaper for Charlotte, has this story about North Carolina’s severe ballot access laws.
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Here is the list of presidential primary candidates in Missouri. The primary is March 15. Candidates qualified by paying a fee of $1,000. There are twelve Republicans, nine Democrats, and five Libertarians.
The only prominent major party candidate who did not file is former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, a Republican.
Missouri is the first state so far in which filing has closed for a Libertarian presidential primary. In 2012, the only person who filed for the Libertarian presidential primary was James Ogle. He received 483, and uncommitted received 431.
The five Libertarians who filed for the 2016 primary are: Marc Allan Feldman of Ohio, Cecil Ince of Missouri, Steve Kerbel of Colorado, Austin Petersen of Missouri, and Rhett R. Smith of Texas.
No one filed in the Constitution Party’s presidential primary.
Brian Irving has this letter to the editor in the Raleigh daily newspaper, the News & Observer. The letter criticizes North Carolina ballot access laws for independent candidates and minor and new political parties.
On January 13, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Puerto Rico v Valle, 15-108. Although this is a criminal law case, it requires the Court to determine if Puerto Rico is sovereign or is simply a dependency of the United States. Lyle Denniston has this interesting article about the case. Thanks to HowAppealing for the link.
The Ohio Secretary of State has rejected Martin O’Malley’s petition to be placed on the Democratic presidential primary ballot. See this story. He needed 1,000 signatures and submitted 1,175. He has been told that only 772 signatures are valid.
Ohio voter registration forms do not ask about party affiliation. However, signatures on Ohio primary petitions are not valid if the signer voted in some other party’s primary in the last election. Signatures on O’Malley’s petition would have been invalidated if the signer voted in the Republican, Green, or Libertarian primary in 2014. Also, of course, signatures would be invalid if the signer isn’t registered to vote at all. Thanks to Austin Cassidy for this news.