Frontloading HQ has this interesting blog post about the failure, so far, of the North Carolina House to vote on HB 373. This is the bill that moves the North Carolina presidential primary from February to March. If no such change is made, national party rules will penalize North Carolina by cutting back most of its delegates to the national convention.
This interesting article at U.S. Politics blog explains the law on which presidential candidates get Secret Service protection. It is significant that the candidate must be seeking the nomination of a party that got at least 10% of the vote in the last election. That standard is lower than the current 15% standard used by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
The article says no non-incumbent presidential candidate in the 2012 election received protection until February 2012. By contrast, in the 2008 election, candidate Barack Obama first started receiving protection on May 3, 2007, according to this New York Times story.
The Institute of Governmental Studies has an all-day symposium on Wednesday, September 2, at 109 Moses Hall on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Here is the schedule. Note especially the 2 p.m. panel on third political parties in the 2015 election. Unfortunately this free event is already filled up, but it is possible to be wait-listed. One of the speakers is Thomas Mann from the Brookings Institution.
Here is a newspaper story about the oral argument on August 25 in Montgomery, Alabama, over the state’s legislative districts. The case is Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v Alabama.
The Observer-Reporter, daily newspaper in Washington, Pennsylvania, has this editorial, calling for easier ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates in Pennsylvania. The editorial criticizes the state government for saying it will appeal the ballot access victory won last month.
Similar editorials have been published recently in Philadelphia and Lancaster.
