As noted earlier, Flint, Michigan, election officials told candidates they had until April 28 to file petitions to be on the non-partisan ballot for city office this year. But then it was learned that the correct deadline was April 21. Last week it was thought that one Mayoral candidate had submitted a petition by the actual deadline, but now he has been told he didn’t have 900 valid signatures, so there are no candidates’ who have qualified to appear on the ballot. Michigan permits write-in votes in all primary and general elections. See this story.

This Concord Monitor story is mainly about whether Bernie Sanders can get on the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary ballot, but the bottom portion of the article also discusses the Libertarian Party’s ballot access lawsuit against the New Hampshire law, passed in 2014, that won’t let new parties petition during odd years.

There have been many Libertarian Party lawsuits against various New Hampshire election restrictions during the last twenty years, but this is the first one that has had good coverage in New Hampshire’s daily newspapers.

New Hampshire is the only state in the nation in which no minor party or independent candidate lawsuit against a state ballot access law has ever won.

On April 30, Bernie Sanders filled out his Federal Election Commission paperwork by saying his “party affiliation” is the “Democratic Party.” See a copy of the FEC form here. Thanks to Vermont National Public Radio for the link.