This Montana newspaper story tells the latest events in the Republican Party’s lawsuit against the open primary, as used to nominate candidates for public office.
3
Earlier this month, Minnesota minor parties created an informal group to work together on ballot access problems, and last week the group met with Secretary of State Steve Simon. The meeting went well and it is likely that Secretary Simon will arrange to have ballot access improvement bills introduced in the 2016 legislature. Minnesota has historically been hospitable to minor parties, and yet ironically Minnesota is one the twelve or thirteen states that has no ballot-qualified parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties.
Other states with no statewide ballot-qualified parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties are Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, and Washington. Tennessee is ambiguous and a court will decide whether the Constitution and Green Parties are on the ballot.
Haroon Riaz has written “Pitfalls of the Two-Party System”, concerning the United States, for The Nation blog. Riaz is a Pakistani banker turned writer who blogs for The Nation.
Mark E. Andersen has this story on Daily Kos, about parties that he believes will have a presidential nominee in 2016, or which already have one.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Reagan will hold oral arguments in Tripp v Smart on October 5, 2015, at 9 a.m. This is a Green Party case against several Illinois ballot access laws, including the requirement that each petition sheet be notarized. This case is in the southern district and will be argued in East St. Louis.
Two other Illinois constitutional ballot access cases are pending. The Libertarian Party’s lawsuit against the requirement that newly-qualifying parties must run a full slate was filed in 2012, and has never had a ruling on declaratory relief. It is assigned to a new U.S. District Court Judge who has six times promised a ruling by a certain date, but has never actually issued a ruling.
Also, the Green Party has another case, in Chicago, Lopez v Smart. It challenges the full slate law also. It has a status conference on September 8 before U.S. District Court Judge John Robert Blakey.