This Montana news story explains that the Green Party nominee for U.S. House in the Montana special election is in the Ninth Circuit, with a decision as to whether he can be on the ballot expected later this week. The election is May 25.
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On March 30, the Kentucky Secretary of State asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Libertarian Party of Kentucky v Grimes, 16-1034. Here is the state’s brief. The issue is Kentucky’s restrictive method on how unqualified parties may become qualified. Kentucky is one of only two states in which it impossible for a party to become ballot-qualified unless it makes a certain showing in a presidential race. The other such state is Washington.
The state’s brief makes much out of the fact that after the lawsuit had been filed, the Kentucky Libertarian Party became ballot-qualified in November 2016, by the vote for Gary Johnson. However, ballot access cases, especially at the U.S. Supreme Court level, do not hinge on developments that occurred after the case was filed. The Court knows that the issue will recur for all current and future new and minor parties.
The Court has not yet set a conference date for this case. New U.S. Supreme Court member Neil Gorsuch will be working on the court by the time the Court holds a conference on this case and decides whether to hear it.
On Sunday, April 9, Montana Greens collected 600 signatures for their U.S. House candidate, Thomas Breck, who is running in the May 25 special election. They will be submitted on April 10, Monday. It is not clear what the courts will do in response to this activism. On April 8 U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris had dropped the petition requirement to 400, but he did not change the deadline, which was in the past when he issued the order.
The matter is now in the Ninth Circuit, Breck v Stapleton, 17-35310. The matter will be heard on Thursday, April 13.
The California Assembly Elections & Redistricting Committee will hear AB 84 on April 26, Wednesday. The bill moves the primary for all office, in presidential years, from June to early March. The author, Assemblyman Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco), is Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore.
On April 4, the New York State Senate passed SB 218, which repeals the in-district residency requirement for petition circulators, both for general election petitions and primary petitions. The bill adds a requirement that the circulator must not have signed the petition of a competing candidate for that same office. The bill passed on a voice vote, so there is no recorded tally.
If this bill is signed into law, there will still be a ban on out-of-state circulators. Whether that ban is constitutional is being litigated in U.S. District Court, in a Libertarian Party lawsuit, Merced v Spano, e.d., 1:16cv-3054. That case is in the process of gathering evidence.