Matthew Riccardi, the Constitution Party gubernatorial nominee in New Jersey this year, will have his party label “Constitution Party” on the November 2017 ballot. The New Jersey Elections Department had originally believed he was not entitled to it because of a missing form, but the problem has been straightened out.
According to this story, with most of the vote counted, 97% of Puerto Ricans who voted favor statehood. Polls closed at 3 p.m. Puerto Rico time.
UPDATE: see this story.
On June 9, the Third Circuit issued this opinion in Rodriquez v 32nd Legislature of the Virgin Islands, 17-1518. It says that no court can decide whether Kevin Rodriquez meets the qualifications to be in the legislature. Only the legislature itself can decide that. The federal law that functions as the Constitution of the U.S. Virgin Islands has a three-year residency requirement for members of the legislature. After Rodriquez was elected in November 2016, he was not seated, because it was discovered that he had sworn (during a bankruptcy proceeding) that he had been a resident of Tennessee for the past few years.
The Virgin Islands had then held a special election to fill his seat on April 8, 2017, which was won by an independent candidate, Janelle Sarauw. However because the dispute was unresolved, the Virgin Islands election authorities refused to certify the results. Lawsuits had been filed in both the Virgin Islands court system and the federal court system, but their only result has been to tell the legislature to make its own determination as to whether Rodriquez satisfies the residency requirement.
Virginia holds elections for Governor and legislature on November 7, 2017. Statewide candidates running in the general election need 10,000 signatures. It appears the only statewide petitions being submitted for any statewide race this year are for the Libertarian nominee for Governor, Cliff Hyra. He has already collected approximately 16,000 signatures. Virginia allows petitioning groups to submit the petitions on a flow basis, so almost all of these signatures have already been submitted and checked. The petition deadline is Tuesday, June 13, at 7 p.m.
Assuming Hyra is on the ballot, this will be the first time any party, other than the Republican and Democratic Parties, has been on the ballot for two Virginia gubernatorial elections in a row, since the period 1941-1953 when the Socialist Party was always on. Before 1970 the statewide non-presidential petition in Virginia was only 250 signatures.
The Libertarians will probably also have seven or so legislative nominees on the ballot. The Green Party will probably have four legislative candidates on the ballot.
Virginia is one of only two states that defines a qualified party as one that got 10% of the vote in a previous election; the other such state is New Jersey. The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%.
North Carolina law does not permit anyone to serve on the State Board of Elections, or a county board, unless that voter is a registered member of one of the two largest parties in the state. On June 7, Michael Crowell, an independent voter and an attorney, sued on his own behalf to overturn that law. Crowell v North Carolina, m.d., 1:17cv-515. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to Brian Irving for the news.
