For the first time, Michigan election officials will hold a Libertarian primary in August 2017. The party polled enough votes last year to qualify for a primary for itself. See this extensive analysis of past minor party primaries in Michigan, written by Greg Stempfle. Thanks to Scotty Boman for the link.
Cheri Honkala and Lucinda Little held a press conference on Wednesday, April 5, to say they will jointly file a federal lawsuit on April 6 to overturn the March 21 special election for State House, 197th district, in Philadelphia. Honkala was the Green Party nominee and Lucinda Little was the Republican nominee. They charge that so many election laws were violated that the election should be run again. It is very difficult to ever persuade a court to invalidate an election and hold a new election.
On April 5, the Oklahoma House Elections & Ethics Committee passed SB 145 by 6-0. This bill makes it easier for independent presidential candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, to get on the ballot. It has already passed the Senate.
On Wednesday, March 29, the Federal Election Commission held a closed meeting and rejected all the evidence that the Commission on Presidential Debates is breaking campaign finance laws. The outcome was not very surprising, because the FEC staff had prepared a finding with that conclusion on March 23.
Thanks to IVN for this news.
It is possible that Level the Playing Field, which had won a court order telling the FEC to look at the evidence again, will now return to U.S. District Court and argue that the March 29 FEC finding is still inadequate.
On April 4, France held a four-hour televised presidential debate. All eleven candidates who are on the ballot were included. This Guardian story focuses on candidate Philippe Poutou of the Anti-Capitalist Party. He had run in the previous presidential election and had only polled 1%, but he was included in the 2017 debate, and according to the story, he did well.
