On Septmeber 7, the Florida Secretary of State refused to put Evan McMullin on the November ballot as the Independent Party nominee, on the grounds that the Independent Party of Florida (which is on the ballot) is not recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a national committee, and also that the Independent Party of Florida is not even affiliated with any national party, FEC-recognized or not. Here is the letter of rejection.

The Independent Party has been on the ballot in Florida since before 2000, but this is the first time it ever tried to nominate anyone for President.

The September 14 New York Times print edition contains a full-page ad from the Gary Johnson-Bill Weld presidential campaign, subtitled, “An Open Letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates.” It points out that polls show 62% of the public want the Libertarian ticket in the debates.

The ad also suggests that if the Commission will relax the 15% rule for the first debate, and allow three podiums, then Johnson and Weld will accede to being excluded from the later debates if they still aren’t at 15% in polls taken after the first debate.

An alternate would be to provide four podiums for the first debate, and then apply that same principle to all four of the presidential candidates who had participated in the first debate.

On September 13, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office issued official election returns for the August 30 primary for the Democratic, Green, Libertarian, and Republican primaries. No one appeared on the primary ballots of the Green Party and the Libertarian Party for U.S. Senate. But both parties had a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate and various other offices.

The Green Party declared write-in candidate in the Green primary for U.S. Senate, Gary Swing, received 238 write-ins. Under the law, he is the nominee and his name will be printed on the November ballot for U.S. Senate. But the Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate, Merissa Hamilton, received 1,286 write-ins in the Libertarian primary, and she will not be allowed to be on the November ballot. Libertarians for statewide office this year needed approximately 4,000 write-ins to be nominated, but Greens only needed one write-in.

The law treats “new” parties differently than “old” parties. The Green Party is considered “new” because it last did its party petition in the period June 2013-May 2014. The Libertarian Party has not had to do a party petition since 1992, because it remains on by keeping its registration above two-thirds of 1%. The Libertarian Party is currently in court, arguing against the minimum number of write-ins needed to nominate in the party’s own primary. The law penalizes minor parties for being successful in their voter registration efforts. Thanks to Bob Johnston for the link.