This year, there are eighteen presidential candidates who are on the ballot in at least two states. One of them is independent Mike Smith, who lives in Colorado but who grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. Because of his Knoxville connection, the Knoxville News-Sentinel has this story about him.
Independent presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente collected enough valid signatures to be on the Washington ballot, but he was kept off because his campaign didn’t file a notice in a newspaper a week before the petition drive started. The newspaper requirement is a hangover from the days when Washington ballot access was not based on petitions, but on attracting a minimum number of voters to a meeting. The lawsuit argues that the requirement is obsolete, especially since the state now permits “meetings” in which circulators ask open-air passersby to sign.
The case is De La Fuente v Wyman, w.d., 3:16cv-5801. It has a hearing Monday, September 26, at 3 p.m. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle, a Bush Jr. appointee.
The November 8 ballot in the District of Columbia will ask voters if they wish D.C. to become a state. The measure was put on the ballot by the City Council. It proposes splitting D.C. into two areas, one that would include the bulk of the city (which would become the state), and then a smaller federal district that would include important national government buildings and would not be part of the proposed state.
Some proponents of statehood oppose the measure because it seems to give too much power to the city council to draft a proposed constitution for the proposed state.
David Gill, the Illinois independent U.S. House candidate who won his ballot access case in U.S. District Court, but then had that victory put on hold by the Seventh Circuit, has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to regain his ballot spot. His appeal was docketed September 23 and is 16A-309.
This Bloomberg View editorial lambasts the Commission on Presidential Debates. The editorial finds many flaws with the CPD. Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.
