The North Carolina State Board of Elections has proposed regulations concerning petitioning for new parties. They include requiring the names of all petitioners to be registered with the State Board before they can petition. Also, the party would need to train each potential petitioner.

Similar laws are being challenged in Arkansas in a federal lawsuit filed by the Arkansas League of Women Voters.

The North Carolina board intends that these new regulations (which are not yet passed) would go into effect July 1.

Even though a U.S. District Court enjoined the old New Jersey ballot format for primary elections last year, the lawsuit continues. Plaintiffs want a permanent injunction that the old format is unconstitutional. Some of the Defendants and intervenors, including the Democratic Party of Camden County, insist that the lawsuit is now moot and no such order is needed.

On April 23,, the plaintiffs filed a brief in favor of a further court order. Kim v Hanlon, 3:24cv-1098. The old primary ballot format put the candidates favored by the party organizations in a better spot on the primary ballot, and let the party-endorsed candidates all in the same favorable column.

On May 2, the Second Circuit refused to order New York election officials to let Jim Walden use the ballot label “Independence”. He is running for Mayor of New York city. The Second Circuit did not explain its reasoning, but said it will do so later. Walden v Kosinski, 25-764.

The case was before Judges Gerald Lynch and Alison Nathan (Obama appointees) and Eunice C. Lee (Biden).

The same law would also have banned the word “Independent” as a ballot label. It is astounding to think that it would be illegal in any state for an independent candidate to have “independent” as a ballot label. The authoritarianism of New York state, the only state with only two presidential candidates on the ballot last November, is shocking.