On January 5, the Oregon Secretary of State released a list of presidential candidates who will be put automatically on the presidential primary ballots of the Democratic and Republican Parties. She did not include Rocky De La Fuente. She put Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic list. She put eleven Republicans on the Republican list. See this story.

The Independent Party is entitled to its own presidential primary, but the Secretary of State did not list any names for that party. She said she was guided by polls, and wanted to include everyone at 1%. However, the law does not give her discretion to do that. The law says the Secretary of State must put candidates on the ballot automatically if that candidate is “recognized by national news media.”

Assuming the Republican primary ballot continues to list eleven names, that will be the most candidates ever on a Republican presidential primary ballot in Oregon. The previous Republican record in Oregon was 1996, when there were nine candidates.

Candidates can also get on the ballot with a petition, but it is very difficult. It requires 5,000 names of party members, but there is a distribution requirement, which requires signatures from 5% of the precincts in ten counties, plus there must be at least 1,000 from each U.S. House district.

On January 4, the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties filed this brief in the Third Circuit, in Cortes v Constitution Party of Pennsylvania, 15-3046. The issue is the Pennsylvania system that puts petitioning groups at risk if they submit a petition that is held not to have enough valid signatures. The parties won on this issue in the U.S. District Court, and now the state is trying to get that decision reversed.